Sonic: Rising Revolution Part One
by DarthFissure95
Summary: A new adventure awaits! Sonic the hedgehog has no memory of his past, and he joins a rebellion determined to defeat Ivo Robotnik and the G.U.N. forces in a new epic journey full of twists and turns as this series serves as a bridge between the '93 Sonic cartoon (SATAM) and the anime Sonic X!
1. Chapter 1

INTRO: This was something I came up with a long while ago, and after editing through a lot of it, I decided to post it here for others to see. Any of you who have read my other Sonic fanfiction stories like 'Shadow and Sarah' should know that this is a PREQUEL series to those stories. Continuity in the Sonic franchise is a mess, so I decided it would be fun to create a series that bridges the gap between the 1993 Sonic the Hedgehog (SATAM) cartoon and Sonic X. What came out of it is a lot of fun, and of course, I had to create new characters to give it a little more suspense. Also, some of the pre-existing characters had their personalities tweaked a bit. Mario and Luigi are more based on their presentations from the live-action film of them, and Wario and Waluigi are changed (for now), here they are known as simply W and W.L, and their personalities are a pretty different (again, that's just for now, you'll like it). That all being said, I wrote this series in the form of short stories, so here, I will take two short stories and put them together to form chapters and turn it into a novel. The formula is kind of like the approach done with the web series RWBY. I will post two or three chapters each week. Enjoy!

NOTE: The (*) symbol done once means the start of a new scene, and the (*) symbol done twice is the end of a scene.

Chapter One

The rain whipped the young boy's face, his thick hair blowing in the high gusts that lashed at his face and stung his eyes. Lighting flashed above him and thunder angrily roared overhead. Holding his hand tightly was his dear friend, and his only one. Her pink-dyed hair was uneven and choppy, and her face was soaked from the rain. He hung over the thrashing waters that raged below him, waiting eagerly to absorb him. A spinning funnel was pulling him away, and his friend grasped his hand tighter, struggling to pull him back up.

The boy tried reaching his other hand up for his friend to take, but the winds rebelled against that, the funnel in the water pulling him closer and closer, his friend's grip was weakening. Finally, the wind pushed its last effort, and the boy's friend lost his hand and the boy fell toward the water, one hand was furiously clutching what he would've given her.

Twenty Years Later…

"Mario and Luigi have already infiltrated the G.U.N. base, and Mario is working on a code-lock to get inside," the computer SEGA-64 reported to his master Chairman Neeko.

"Show me a map of the base," Neeko requested, his rough hand moving across his dark hair, his mind deep in thought. SEGA-64 brought up a map of the base on his blue screen, showing a base with four different small buildings each connected by a bridge in a square shape above an irritated ocean.

"Mario is now attempting to break into the east base now," the computer reported. A small smile spread across Neeko's middle-aged face.

"Excellent," he said.

Mario tapped the last few combination keys for the lock on the door, and the door easily slid open.

"Okay Luigi, we're in, I'll see what I could find inside," Mario said through his com.

"Roger that, you're doing good, but there is a very high level of security inside the next room," Luigi said over his com. Mario stealthily walked through the first room, which was nothing but empty, but had a growling furnace in the center of the room. The air was breezy and smoke leaked out of the furnace. Mario wondered if it needed to be fixed, and he and Luigi had a specialty at fixing pipes. The way into the next room was just a doorway, and he could see G.U.N. soldiers pacing back and forth inside.

"Luigi?" Mario asked.

"Already on it," Luigi replied. Through the window in the room, small balls of fire flew past Mario's face and smacked into the guards. They all fell over without making a sound. Carefully, Mario lifted the bodies and tossed them out the window and watched them tumble into the waters below. The whole base was built in the middle of the ocean, almost in the middle of nowhere. Mario gave a thumbs-up to Luigi, who was crouched on top a tall spire that was level with the window. The top was so deep; no one would even notice he was there.

"The plans should be in the computer in the room behind you," Luigi pointed out. Mario turned around and walked towards the computer, setting his laser pistol on the desk and taking out a memory chip.

"Watch my back Luigi, I'm going to download the information now," Mario said. He injected the chip into the side of the computer and brought up a large file, ready to download.

"Okay, I'm…wait a minute…" Mario's eyes widened and his face moved closer to the screen reading the data on it. What was on it was surely not good.

"Mario, what's wrong?" Luigi asked.

"Luigi, you'll want to hear this," Mario said slowly, still reading. Suddenly, the screen changed to black. The enemy knew he was here and they had shut down the computer to halt the download.

Shocked, Mario pulled his memory chip out of the computer. He quickly turned around with his plasma pistol in hand as he saw four men run in.

"Freeze!" The lead man shouted.

The four men moved toward him, but four fire balls from Luigi through the window took care of them.

"I'm on my way!" Luigi shouted. But it was too late. The doorways on both sides of him slid shut and locked themselves.

"Nice of you to visit Mario," a voice said through an intercom at the top corner of the wall. Mario had only heard this voice once before, but he already knew that it was the voice of Ivo Robotnik.

"Did I tell you the last time we talked, that you're such an egghead?" Mario taunted.

"My men will be with you shortly to secure you. You're going to be my guest for a long time," Ivo taunted back. Mario tapped his com in his left ear.

"Luigi, get out of here! Call Miles! I'm not going to make it, the mission is a failure. Tell them…"

"What? No, I'm coming!" Luigi argued.

"Tell them that…" But it was too late. Ivo had jammed their transmissions.**

*Luigi jumped off one of the many spires in the center of the base, wrestling G.U.N. soldiers off the bridge, or making quick work of them with his plasma rifle. Then, he jumped over the side of the bridge, and his feet landed on the back of the Tour, Miles Prower's ship. The ship lurched a little from his landing.

"Hey! Careful up there!" Miles shouted from the front. Luigi smiled beneath his helmet. That was Miles most of the time. Ships were meat and drink to him, and he was hated it when his ship was in possible danger whether he was in or out. Luigi jumped into the emergency hatch and staggered over to one of the passenger seats.

"Where's Mario?" Miles asked in his childish voice.

"I lost him, he's under custody and he told me to leave. Then, our transmissions were jammed," Luigi said.

"You're not going to save him?" Miles asked, sounding shocked.

"He ordered me to leave. The Chairman will set a rescue mission," Luigi explained, hoping he was right about 'rescue mission'. Miles quickly nodded when bullets began smacking against the back of the ship. Speeding faster, he sent the Tour spiraling away so that it would be more difficult for the enemy to send a direct hit, and he kept flying until the base was out of sight.**

*Back at the mother ship the Trident, Luigi stood nervously in front of Chairman Neeko, not quite happy to have to deliver the news that the mission was a failure, and that one of their best men was being held hostage. Behind Neeko, where the computer SEGA-64 was normally on, was powered down. Reluctantly, Luigi told Neeko what happened.

"I'll see to it that we send a rescue team, but we need to be patient. There are more important things to attend to before we go rescue your brother." Neeko explained. Luigi stood back, not quite enthusiastic about Neeko's words. Neeko wasn't a bad man, but sometimes he was overly cautious. He always said that duty comes first, and he believed it was better to let one person go then to let millions go.

"Perhaps W and W.L will be willing to save your brother, but I need you here. The Heroes of Today need you. There is a new rookie that is receiving training right now as I speak, so why don't you try to make an acquaintance with her…" Neeko suggested, a smile spreading across his face.**

*Luigi walked out to the main hangar of the Trident where he found the new rookie that Neeko mentioned, standing by Miles who was underneath his ship tampering with it. Every now and then, the new rookie would pass a tool to Miles for him to use.

"Luigi, that last tour put some nasty dents in this thing," Miles said playfully under the ship as he worked. His suit was covered in soot and grime, just the way he normally looked when he wasn't on duty. He put a wrench down and moved from underneath the ship and stood up, his legs shaky at first. A greasy hand slapped his forehead.

"Where are my manners? Luigi, this is Amy, a new recruit," Miles introduced, gesturing to the person beside him. Luigi frowned when he finally got a good look at the new recruit. She was a walking, talking hedgehog. Luigi had seen so few of them, but he remembered that Neeko was always reluctant to allow hedgehogs to join them because of the hyperactivity in their blood. This one seemed quiet though, but he couldn't tell what she was thinking because of the dark pink helmet shielding her face. The T-visor was shaded so he couldn't get a clear look at her eyes. However, around her neck was a necklace with what looked like a colored piece of rock that was chipped off a larger one.

"So, Amy, are you from around here?" Luigi asked. Amy shook her head.

"Not really. It's a long story," Amy replied.

"How did the Chairman accept you?" Luigi asked.

"While we were gone, she faced up against some of our best men; she exceeded expectations for the Chairman," Miles answered for Amy.

"Where did you learn combat?" Luigi asked.

"It kind of just came naturally to me I guess," Amy replied, but for some strange reason, she sounded unsure of herself.

"Well, perhaps I could give you the grand tour?" Luigi asked with a humorous smile.

"That would be nice," Amy replied, and Luigi took Amy out of the hangar and down a hallway. On a board to the side of the wall, it said: PROJECT 60 IN PROGRESS.

"Project 60?" Amy asked.

"The Chairman creates things sometimes. The projects are normally new engines for our ships, or updated equipment for when we go on missions," Luigi said.

"So we fight the G.U.N. forces right?" Amy asked.

"We're sort of a rebellion, the G.U.N. forces desire to create their own government on this planet. They've already decided to allow Ivo Robotnik to be the planet's ruler. The animals demand their freedom, but the G.U.N. forces have other plans. They're a tyrannical group," Luigi explained.

"Oh," Amy replied, looking like she was putting something together in her head.

"Did Ivo have something to do with your family?" Luigi asked. Amy shook her head.

"No," Amy replied. Luigi wasn't quite sure, but he decided to excuse the subject for the time being. They continued walking, and Luigi went into the armory to show her around.**

*Ivo Robotnik admired the valley of Quinn very much. Being a tyrant to those who stood in his way didn't mean he didn't admire nature. Here in this valley, the grass was a clean green. Ivo chose the spot he was standing now to be the spot he would be standing when his city was built and completed to see the addition he had made to the valley. He heard Commander Towers speak behind him.

"It will take a lot of people to build this city Ivo, not to mention the Heroes…" the Commander said, but Ivo cut him off.

"Don't warn me about that rebellion, they will not stand in my way; they have some wounds to lick after losing one of their men to me. Have our men been assembled for their trip to Apotos?" Ivo asked.

"Yes, sir," Towers said. Ivo smiled.

"Good, proceed as planned," Ivo ordered.

"Yes, sir," the Commander said again, and he walked away to follow Ivo's orders. Ivo turned his gaze back to the valley, hands clenched behind his back. He chuckled again.

"Egghead, what a ridiculous nickname," he muttered to himself.**

*Luigi walked out of the armory with Amy, and was about to continue on, when another super soldier of theirs ran up to them. It was Knuckles, whom Luigi believed was the hardest to read out of the rest of the bunch.

"Luigi, Amy, come quick! There's another new recruit, and he's going up against W.L. and W., come on!" Knuckles said, out of breath by the time he was done talking. The next thing he knew, Luigi was witnessing something he had never seen before in his whole life. He wasn't here when Amy was having a test run with some of their best men, so he didn't get to see her combat skills, but never in his life did he think he would see a male, blue hedgehog with incredible speed on the training room floor facing off against W.L. and W.**

NOTES: One of the things I was desperate to put in was to have Miles (not yet called Tails here, but he will be eventually) working on his plane because of the tech savvy we know him to be. Working on his plane and just doing engineering in general was a big deal to this character, and I wanted to emphasize on that.

The chipped piece of rock was an element taken from the Super Mario Bros. Movie, except, in the film, it's being worn by Daisy. I enjoyed using as many elements from the different Mario and Sonic material as I found possible or engaging to use.

Everyone who has played at least two or three Sonic games would know where the name Ivo Robotnik came from. The character called Ivo here is my own version of him, to introduce a tougher, more effective villain with a history, and his own personal struggles. Those are things the real Eggman didn't have, but I thought it would be humorous to have the other characters call him an egghead throughout the series. Eggman WILL show up eventually, but it will be a while.


	2. Chapter 2

Chapter 2

Luigi watched in disbelieved awe at the blue hedgehog going up against W and W.L., _the _best men in the Heroes of Today on the training room floor. Another thing that shocked him was how…fast the hedgehog was running. When he ran, he was just a blue blur, so when he would be standing in one place, all of a sudden he was somewhere else on the floor in a sudden bGideon of an eye. W.L. and W were getting frustrated now, and they were beginning to get more aggressive which Luigi whole-heartedly believed was not a good idea when it came to these two.

Four poles had risen out of the ground, and the hedgehog would run around it and catch either W or W.L. on the other side. W.L. tried swinging a fist at the hedgehog, but the blue blur would have W.L. on the floor in a split second from running against his legs and tripping him over.

"Who is he? What's his name?" Luigi asked, his eyes wide in wonder. Knuckles tapped a few keys on a computer screen, which brought up a profile of the hedgehog.

"His name is Sonic, and he was found and recruited by the Chairman himself, rather than him coming to _us _and wanting to join us," Knuckles explained. Luigi didn't reply. He didn't have to. This Sonic was a genius, and he wasn't surprised that the Chairman immediately chose him without him coming to them first. Luigi could tell that Sonic didn't receive combat training like Amy possibly did. This was different. This looked like the talent came _naturally _to him.

He watched as Sonic ran up one of the poles and along the ceiling, coming down hard on the ground right beside W. With one swift move from his foot, he tripped W to the ground and kicked his whole body toward W.L. W.L. jumped over his brother's incoming body and tried firing practice fire into Sonic's chest, but he grabbed the small handG.U.N., held it up high, than quickly curled up in a ball, flying upward, and sent W.L.'s body flying up toward the ceiling. He struck the ceiling, but the man's boots were magnetized, so he stood upside down, firing false rounds toward Sonic, who easily dodged them all. W obviously found this an opportunity to take Sonic while he was distracted.

Luigi watched as he ran, one hand grabbing a pole, swinging around it in the air and sent his feet flying towards Sonic's face. Sonic, however, dodged the move, dodged another false bullet from W.L. and kicked W in the chest with incredible force. W slammed against the pole so hard it left a dent in it.

"Oh my," Amy said in surprise. Luigi watched as she took off her helmet, revealing her true face. Her large eyes were sparkling in delight, and her pink hair was dangling over one eye. She removed that with a flick of her head.

"I'll be, I've never seen anything like it," Knuckles said, though he didn't remove his helmet, Luigi could see his eyes behind the T-visor wide with astonishment. Luigi noticed he was almost groping the control panel in front of him. What was it about Knuckles that made him so impressed by power? Luigi had sometimes wondered about this since the first time he had met him. His attention suddenly went back to the fight below as he watched W.L. come down from the ceiling with a _chunk of the ceiling_. Sonic raced backward as W.L. landed on his feet, his fist in the ground, and the other hand clutching the chunk of ceiling. Sonic didn't hesitate before racing by W.L. with a fist at ready. The impact was so strong, the chunk of ceiling exploded into pieces and the side of W.L's helmet shattered. W held up a hand for truce. When Sonic stopped, he stared at his hand, which had blood on his fingers. Luigi realized that Sonic was bleeding from his hand. He wondered if it was from the broken shards of W.L's helmet, or if Sonic had really made a bad move that was beyond his abilities. Looking satisfied with himself, Sonic ran away from the training room floor and out the door. Luigi, Knuckles, and Amy clapped even though Sonic wasn't there to be congratulated to.

The three of them went down the stairs to the training floor to check on W and W.L. They didn't look like they appreciated getting beaten down by a blue hedgehog with super speed. Knuckles gripped W.L's hand and pulled him up to his feet, though he didn't look like he appreciated being given a helping hand.

"Good try," Knuckles complimented to W.L., who only grunted in return and walked away.

"Man, that hedgehog is something, I'll tell you that," W said, slowly getting back up onto his feet, one hand feeling the back of his head. Getting slammed into the pole took his yellow and purple helmet right off. His black hair looked like it was plastered to his forehead from the sweat, and his growing mustache was bedraggled and wet.

"How did he get here?" Luigi asked. W shrugged.

"All that I know about him was that Chairman Neeko said that we had a challenge to face on the training room floor and that it was a new recruit, like Amy," W explained, pointing a finger to Amy. Amy grinned fiercely, and W smiled back in the form of a mock grin.

"W and W.L., I need you to come to my office now for information on a new mission," Chairman Neeko said over the intercom on the wall.

"Let's see how long it takes my brother to replace helmets," W said with another grin, this one showing off his white teeth. He walked off the floor, leaving Luigi, Amy, and Knuckles alone.

"Maybe the Chairman is sending them to recover my brother," Luigi suggested, feeling a glint of hope. Knuckles shrugged, and Amy said nothing.

"I'll catch you guys later, I'm going to see if I can catch up with our new guy," Amy said, and walked off. Just then, Luigi noticed that the board on the wall said PROJECT 60…FAILURE.

"I wonder what that project was," Luigi wondered aloud. He turned to Knuckles, who happened to be one of the Chairman's personal representatives, so he got to know more about what the Chairman was up to sooner than anybody else. Most of the time, new weapons or equipment was stored in the armory without warning, and the soldiers would figure out how to use them by themselves. Luigi wondered if Sonic had any knowledge of that, although, after seeing what Sonic was capable of already, he couldn't see Sonic _needing _any weapons.

"Luigi, you've been here for years, so I suppose I could trust you enough to tell you this. Come, we have a lot to talk about," Knuckles said, motioning to him to follow. Luigi nodded and followed him off the training room floor, wondering what was next.

**NOTES: I knew since the beginning that the best way to introduce Sonic was to show off what he was capable of, and just how well he could manage that sonic speed of his. In my opinion, if you want to introduce a character that has unusual, special strength, you should show that first, and then his personality comes next. It gets the reader excited because he or she will want to learn more about this character.**


	3. Chapter 3

NOTE: The (*) symbol done once is the start of a new scene, and the (*) symbol done twice is the end of a scene.

Chapter 3

*The sun's rays reflected off the T-visor of W's helmet as W and W.L. stared out at the blue, cloudless sky from the back of Miles Prower's ship the _Tour_. The back hatch was open, and Miles was preparing to land the ship on the ground a couple of feet away from Apotos, a city that was losing citizens because of the G.U.N. forces which were taking citizens to be slaves. Koopa was overseeing the entire operation, if that really _was _his real name.

"Okay, this is where you get off, set your cloaking devices on and head for the east gate to the city which is the one gate that's not shut," Miles informed.

"Acknowledged," W responded, laying the full palm of his hand onto the button on his wrist that turned on his cloaking device.

"Remember, you're here to rescue people unharmed, not accidentally kill them in a stunt crash," Miles jokingly reminded them. W looked uneasily at W.L. who had a nasty habit of being reckless on these missions. The ship was now hovering just a few inches off the ground, close enough for the two of them to just simply step right off. After getting off, W.L. switched on his cloaking device.

"Okay, I'm putting you guys into Rose's hands now," Miles said over the comGideon in their helmets.

"W? W.L.?" The voice of Rosalina asked over their com. W smiled. Rosalina, though she preferred everybody call her Rose instead, was their "security camera". She could see everything through her special equipment. W was not a technology expert when it came to those sorts of things at all.

"We read you loud and clear Rose, go ahead," W said, stealthily walking toward the city Apotos which lay beautifully underneath the sun's rays in front of him.

"You're a little too late in coming W, the G.U.N. forces managed to leave with one truck full of people," Rose said, a pinch of sadness strangling her normally straight voice.

"Well, we'll show them that they mess with the wrong guys," W said cheerfully.

"Right then, head for the east gate as planned, it's the only one open. There are two men guarding the gate, but, since you're cloaked, that shouldn't be a problem," Rose said.

"I think me and my brother will do it the hard way," W said, chuckling to himself. The two guards at the gate frowned when they heard him speak, and began looking around for the source of the voice. W and W.L. casually walked up to them, and struck them in the throat with the butt of their rifles. The two beat them down until they were unconscious.

"Should we do something with the bodies?" W asked Rose.

"No need, they'll find out you're here eventually, I take it you're going to put on quite a show," Rose guessed.

"You better believe it," W replied, and him and W.L. stepped onto the stony pavement of Apotos.

"Where should we look first?" W asked, him and W.L. continuing to walk down the street.

"There's one more truck that plans to take some people away, I heard they plan to empty out the entire city, but slowly, not all at one time," Rose said.

"Wow, that Ivo's an egghead. Where do we look for this truck?" W asked.

"They're loading a group of people now in one more truck about one mile west of your position," Rose informed. W turned left, and since the ground was so flat, he could see a black dot pretty far away, which he guessed was the truck.

"You ready for this brother?" W asked W.L. W.L. said nothing, but instead, jumped on top of the roof of a white building and began running toward the truck, jumping from building to building.

"I'm ready too, pal," W said to himself, and his gaze locked onto a white motorcycle parked in an alley between two buildings.

"W, there's…oh, you've already spotted it haven't you," Rose guessed, even over a comGideon W could hear her sigh. A mischievous grin lit up his face.

"Roger that, Rose," W confirmed. He was ready for a crazy ride.**

*By the time W.L. got just two buildings away from the truck, the soldiers there had sealed the group of slaves into the back and had gotten in the front and fired up the engine. Suddenly, they started driving as if they were in a hurry.

"They know you're here, your brother is going after them on a motorcycle," Rose sighed over his comGideon. W.L. watched W speed past him on a white motorcycle, his cloaking device off. Annoyed and frustrated, W.L. continued jumping from building to building to catch up with the truck.

W continued driving his motorcycle toward the truck, bringing the speed up faster and faster.

Carefully, he pulled his rifle out and tried to get his ride next to the side door where the passenger was sitting. Finally he did, but he found out the passenger was prepared for this. Pistol fire struck against the motorcycle, threatening to destroy the engine. W returned the fire with his rifle, but most of the shots completely missed, however, two struck the front window. Glass shattered and spilled onto the street and onto the passenger's lap. W looked at the top of the truck just in time to see W.L. jump onto it, quickly gaining his balance with his magnetic boots. However, apparently the G.U.N. forces had the same idea. Two G.U.N. commandos jumped from the roof of a building to meet W.L. on top of the truck, their machine guns blazing.

W.L. took out a cable gun and sent it wrapping around the machine gun of one of the commandos and tearing it out of his hands, sending it striking against the other commando who lost his balance and fell off the truck. W.L. grinned fiercely, knowing that's what the commandos get for not having magnetic boots. The last commando lunged at W.L. with his fists flying, sending one up his chin and the other into his chest. The commando attempted to finish him off with a knife, but W.L. grabbed the man's wrists and twisted them both, forcing him to drop the knife, which clattered a few times and then fell off the truck. W.L. finished the commando off by sending him flying right off and onto the street behind him.

"If you're done playing, I'd like you to know that the truck is almost to the south gate where they meet their reinforcements," Rose said inside W.L's helmet.**

*W was getting restless now. The truck was getting closer to the south gate to rendezvous with a backup team and leave the city with their prisoners. The passenger continued to fire at the motorcycle, thinking it would be more fun to kill him by destroying his ride. Finally, five shots hit the engine and the motorcycle exploded. W was trained for this however, jumping off seconds before and his boots, which happened to be rocket boots, powered on, and the chase continued. W could use his plasma pistol now, and he got in front of the passenger's window, a cheesy grin on his face. He fired, and a blue bolt struck the passenger. W.L. landed his feet on top of the truck in front of the driver, causing the truck to swerve because of the impact.

"No! You fool! The truck needs to be steady, we can't let the people in the back get killed!" W shouted in frustration. W.L. quickly nodded and powered on _his _rocket boots to the driver's door, pulled it open and fired at the driver. Pulling the driver out of the truck, W.L. took control of the wheel.

"Good work, I'll cover you, we have to eliminate any G.U.N. activity here, otherwise there's no point to this mission!" W yelled. W could see the south gate now, sure enough there was a support team, and they had a tank. W had truthfully only faced a tank once in his time as a super soldier. Whoever was in the tank seemed to immediately realize what was going on, and the cannon was aimed directly at the truck. Still flying, W removed a hidden grenade from his belt and threw it. It struck against the tank and exploded, sending it falling over onto its side on fire. Several more trucks with G.U.N. soldiers sprung into action.

"_I_'_ll _deal with this, get the truck to the south gate," W said quietly through his comlink. W.L. immediately got the message, turned the truck around, and sped away. Several bullets hit the back of the truck as he drove away, but he managed to get out of range.

"So, who's first?" W asked, putting himself right into a fight. His first victim was tripped and kicked into the air, then a blow to the head from W's fist sent him flying against the wall of a building. W flipped backward, grabbed two men and slammed their heads together, finishing them off with blue stun rings.**

*W.L. raced to the south gate with a truckload of civilians. Transporting innocent civilians from point A to point B wasn't exactly his specialty.

"I'm impressed. W is taking out the last of any G.U.N. activity, and the mission should be considered a victory, they'll think twice before coming here to take people as prisoners again," Rose said over the comlink. W.L. halted the truck at the south gate, got out of the truck, and let them out the back. The civilians knew almost immediately where W.L. was from and was grateful. W arrived very soon after.

"The G.U.N. activity here has been taken care of," W reported. W.L. nodded and turned his gaze back to the civilians.

"Just give us a call if the G.U.N. forces try to bother you again," W said. Then with that, he contacted Miles to come pick them up. Like most of his and his brother's past missions, this was a success.**

*"The last truck full of slaves didn't make it to the rendezvous, it was stopped by two soldiers of the Heroes," Koopa confessed to Ivo, who had his back turned to him. Ivo was overlooking the construction of his new empire.

"That source should be thanked somehow for pointing out this land to use," Ivo said, as if Koopa hadn't said anything.

"Robotnik?" Koopa asked, trying to drive the subject of the slaves back into the picture. But Ivo only waved his hand in dismissal.

"We have all the people we need, they will all eventually suffer anyway," Ivo replied.

"What do you propose we do about this?" Koopa demanded, his voice was stern but nervous, his hand fingering his green uniform. Ivo sighed, took off his glasses and stared down at them thoughtfully.

"Patience is a good virtue general; I have other ways to achieve our goals," Ivo said. Koopa awkwardly stood, waiting for Ivo to say something else. But he didn't.

"Anything else to report?" Ivo asked, his voice with an impatient edge to it.

"No," Koopa admitted.

"Then you are dismissed," Ivo said, his impatience clear in his voice. Koopa sighed and walked away, disappointed.

**NOTES: Koopa here was inspired by the presentation of the villain in the Super Mario Bros. Movie. The idea was to bring in villains from both franchises, even if a Sonic villain was the real threat here.**

**I will confess that I hate the characters Wario and Waluigi from the Mario franchise. They were too annoying and babyish, even if that portrayal was intended. To fix this, I decided to take those two characters and create them from scratch, making them tough, brutal super soldiers. You should notice that W.L doesn't talk, which was something I thought would be cool to make him much more intimidating. He's a bigger mystery than many readers would think he is. Despite his obvious characteristics, he has a sensitive attitude. The picture I wanted for these two characters was to show that they are strong and awesome, yes, but they are brothers that look out for each other and care deeply for each other, which will be emphasized later.**


	4. Chapter 4

**Project 60 (mentioned in the first and second chapter) will be a topic used in the future, it's a mystery as to what Project 60 is exactly and what it can do. The (*) symbol used once signals the beginning of a new scene while the the (*) symbol used TWICE is the end of a scene.**

Chapter 4

*"You guys ready?" Miles shouted over the noise of his ship. Sonic nodded, looking out at the cloudy sky which hung over Spagonia, with a scary realization that this was really it. This was his first mission. This wasn't practice. It was the real thing. A blast from incoming enemy fire struck against the _Tour_. Sonic looked out the open hatch to see G.U.N. ships flying away from their main cruiser, which the Chairman learned, held Mario in custody.

Sonic looked next to him at his partner Amy. Just seconds after he first met her, he had already decided he didn't like her. She was too overconfident in herself, bragging that her skills outmatched his. Well, _maybe _in combat skills, but she lacked speed, and speed was a special gift to Sonic that came naturally to him.

"Okay, this is where you get off, right on top of the cruiser," Miles shouted over the noise of enemy fire.

"Where do you pick us up?" Sonic asked. Miles brought up a radar screen showing a map of the cruiser.

"That wide platform near the back of the cruiser," Miles said, pointing at a highlighted spot flashing in green.

"Got it," Sonic acknowledged, and without giving a warning to either Miles or Amy, he jumped off the ship, sailing his body right toward the cruiser. Enemy fire blazed around him and almost singed him once. Sonic did a flip in the air, changing the direction in his fall. A platform on the back of the cruiser was getting closer and closer now. Finally, his feet found the platform, and there were two shocked G.U.N. soldiers with their rifles aimed at him.

"Is that a hedgehog?" One of them asked. They were too bewildered to move, and Sonic easily flipped them into the air and they fell off the ship. Amy landed behind Sonic.

"Would've been nice if you had told me you were going," she complained. Sonic grinned, but he didn't answer, and he continued running across the boardwalk, this time without his gifted speed. Two other men spotted him and fired. Sonic jumped aside onto the railing next to one of them, then sent a powerful kick against him, sending him flying against the other soldier. Alarms were already going off, signaling to security that they had an intruder. Sonic looked over the railing to spot another boardwalk below.

"Amy, jump onto that boardwalk and try to find the prisoner down there," Sonic yelled. Amy quickly nodded and jumped over the railing, raining plasma fire down on any soldiers below. Well, at least she was good at following orders. He continued running across the boardwalk, enemy fire blazed around him. Reaching another group, he swung his foot across two men, tripping them both, then jumped over the railing. His feet landed on a soldier who was about to bite into a nutrition bar but fell flat on the walk from Sonic's impact. Sonic picked up the nutrition bar and flung it at another soldier's face to the left of him. Without seeing if it hit him first, Sonic curled up into a ball and hurled himself at him, which sent the soldier flying right off the boardwalk. This was too easy.**

*Ivo Robotnik stood on the bridge of his cruiser the _Tyrant _watching the sky battle. The Heroes of Today had sent Miles and his fire squadron _The_ _Tails_ to rescue their prisoner and destroy his cruiser. Yet, something didn't feel right. Just then alarms started blaring, warning him of Hero presence on the ship. Ivo turned on his security screens, revealing different angles of the boardwalks outside. On one of them he saw a blue blur mowing down soldier after soldier.

"What?" Ivo wondered aloud. The door slid open behind him.

"Sir, we have a blue hedgehog trying to get to the detention center," a soldier behind him reported.

"Hedgehog? It's a blasted hedgehog?" Ivo shouted.

"Yes, sir, the other one looks like a _pink_ hedgehog," the soldier added.

"What?" Ivo gasped and scanned his eyes across the security monitors until he spotted one with a pink hedgehog mowing down soldier after soldier.

"Amy? No…" He quickly stopped himself and turned to face the soldier.

"Deploy all troops _now_," Ivo immediately replied.

"But sir…"

"I gave you an order sergeant, they're here for the prisoner. Stop them and bring them to me," Ivo insisted. Desperate not to provoke him, the soldier turned on his heels and ran off. Ivo smiled. It looked like his plan would have to be put into motion a little sooner than he expected, but, as he always believed, the sooner the better.**

*Sonic ran up to meet Amy, who appeared to be doing just fine on her own. G.U.N. soldiers were coming at them from both sides now, so maybe it was time to play leader.

"Amy, are you ready for some teamwork?" Sonic asked. Amy looked at him like he was insane.

"I was hoping for some of that when we first got here!" She shouted over the noise of plasma fire. Sonic grinned.

"Just follow my lead okay? Now, back to back!" He shouted back. The two of them kicked enemies away off the boardwalk or fired them down, or at least Amy did. Sonic hadn't brought a gun; he didn't need one.

"Alright now, switch sides with me and run on my mark!" Sonic instructed. So they did, Sonic switched sides, kicking and punching oncoming soldiers.

"Go, go! Follow me!" Sonic shouted, running across the boardwalk, hurling a pistol he had picked up at another G.U.N. soldier which struck him against the chest, taking him right off his feet. A fierce grin formed on Sonic's face and he bolted toward the next group of soldiers, flipping into the air and twirling a kick against a soldier's face, and knocking the rest out with kicks and punches to the head except for two.

"Maybe we should've just surrendered," one of them complained, and Sonic didn't give a moment's hesitation before curling up into a ball and sending them flying off the boardwalk. Two long bullets smacked against the boardwalk from a high distance. Sonic followed the trail of bullets to a man with a sniper rifle standing on a platform at the edge of the boardwalk where there was a ladder leading up to that platform.

"Use a sniper!" Sonic ordered. He watched Amy unhook a sniper from a fallen soldier's back and jump towards the platform, firing off one round, which downed the shooter on the platform. Amy's feet landed on the platform that had a structure, which led to the detention center. Sonic did the simple thing to get to the platform by going up the stairs.

"I'll go in and look for their prisoner, you stay here and tell me if anyone is coming," Sonic ordered.

"So, I'm supposed to follow your orders huh? Was that established behind my back or something?" Amy asked. She did have a point, Sonic _was _giving orders, and he was just as much a super soldier as Amy was. He was no commander or general. Just a soldier.

"Hey, at least these orders are keeping you alive," Sonic pointed out, and left the subject at that. Without another word, he wrenched the door open and cautiously walked in. The detention center was a thin hall, each cell guarded by a ray shield. As he walked along the hall, he realized that all of them were empty.

"They're all empty," Sonic said, looking around

"Empty? I don't understand, this was the place that the Chairman said their prisoner would be," Amy said from the doorway. Sonic narrowed his eyes as he thought.

"Or maybe he was taken away from this place before we got in the room," he thought aloud. Just then, he noticed something small in one of the cells. The ray shield was down since there was no one inside, so he easily walked in and picked up the thing, which happened to be a rock with a note scratched on it. In sloppy words it said: beware the spy. Without a doubt, the warning was from Mario. Tapping the comlink on his wrist, Sonic contacted Miles.

"Prisoner's not in the detention center Miles, I think we may be too late," Sonic informed.

"Yeah, I think you are. I _just _saw a large vessel come out the ship's hangar bay and is fleeing quickly," Miles replied.

"Ivo," Sonic guessed.

"Probably."

"He took the prisoner."

"Okay, well, meet me out here and I'll try to finish destroying this cruiser," Miles said. Suddenly, the cruiser shook so violently it took Sonic and Amy off their feet.

"One of the cruiser's engines has exploded, wait…wait…oh no…get off the cruiser now, the whole thing is tipping over!" Miles shouted over the comlink.

"Acknowledged!" Sonic yelled, and he ran out of the detention center, grabbed Amy's hand, and pulled her along with him.**

*Ivo rode his own ship away from the sky battle, uncaring about what happened to the _Tyrant_. His prisoner, Mario, had been forced into the cargo hold and was his…unlucky passenger. He punched a code-signal to a certain location. He had to speak with the man that was hosting a…special operation.

"Doctor, are you successful so far?" Ivo asked.

"I'm making good progress yes, but I need time," a voice said back.

"Well you won't get to have that much doctor, I want to see that you have gone very far in this by the time I get there," Ivo snapped.

"Yes, sir," the doctor replied.**

*The cruiser was so dangerously tipped on its side by now, that Sonic and Amy were practically skidding across the boardwalk rather than running on their feet. Fires were springing up everywhere, and everything was coming apart. They headed as fast as they could for the open platform at the back of the cruiser, but Miles was nowhere to be found. Waiting for him was not what Sonic had in mind. Once they were on the platform, Sonic, still holding Amy's hand, rushed to the end. And jumped over the side. Sonic took a deep breath as he felt the cold rush of wind whip against his face. He looked at Amy, who looked strangely okay to have been thrown off a cruiser and falling through the sky in the middle of a ship battle.

"Can I let go of your hand now?" Sonic shouted over the wind and missiles.

"Yeah, yeah, go ahead!" Amy shouted back. Without hesitation, Sonic let go of Amy's hand, and the two began to fall further apart from each other. Just then, an enemy ship came shooting by, but Sonic grabbed hold of it, quickly grabbed onto Amy as it passed by her, and the two of them were on top of it. There were two pilots inside, and they both noticed that the two hedgehogs were on top. The passenger grabbed a pistol from his holster and opened an emergency window in the door to try to shoot them off. His pistol blazed at them, but Sonic flipped and ducked from them all, finally kicking the pistol out of his hand and then sent his foot flying against the window, which slammed against the man's cheek, knocking him out cold. Several ships were starting to fire missiles at them, which Sonic and Amy both dodged, then jumped off just as the ship exploded from its own team's fire. Just then, they found themselves in the passenger compartment on the _Tour_. Miles had backed his ship up to catch the two of them.

"Let's get out of here!" Miles shouted, spinning his ship in the air for fun, and he ordered his squad to follow him out of the battle. The _Tyrant _was destroyed, but the main objective, unfortunately, had failed.

"That was…that was awesome!" Amy squealed, yanking her helmet off, staring in awe at Sonic. Sonic grinned, but wearily this time. He really was feeling tired.

"I've never met anybody like you in my whole life Sonic," Amy said. She walked up to him, gave him a brief hug, and started walking toward the co-pilot seat next to Miles. She stopped and looked back at him.

"Thanks," she simply said. Sonic had nothing to say. He had a feeling he and her were going to get along. He was, however, nervous about the warning he found in the cell. Should he tell the others? He was afraid that if he did, no one would trust each other, and they would spend too much time looking for a traitor in their midst. Sonic decided to keep it to himself for a while, and keep an eye out for himself, so that maybe he can find out who the traitor is, report it to the Chairman and have the traitor arrested without any conflict between everybody else.**

**NOTES: I didn't want to show Sonic and Amy having a perfect friendship since the minute they meet each other. I felt it was important to show them having to cope with each other and learn to work together, allowing their friendship to grow. You could think of the structure of Ivo's cruiser to be almost exactly the same as Eggman's cruiser from Sonic Adventure.**


	5. Chapter 5: Shadow

**Get ready for Shadow vs Knuckles coming right up! As usual the (*) symbol used once means the start of a new scene and the (*) symbol used TWICE signals the END of a scene.**

Chapter 5

*The city of Westopolis created tanks for the Heroes of Today. Now, the G.U.N. forces desired to take those factories and use the tanks for their own use. To take it, they were to use a new weapon. Shadow the Hedgehog.**

*The Chairman finished his explanation of the G.U.N. forces' attack to Sonic and Knuckles, who were both chosen to lead a small squad of soldiers against the G.U.N. forces at Westopolis.

"We cannot allow the G.U.N. forces to take the city and stop the production of tanks for us. We need that heavy artillery if we are to make progress in this war," the Chairman finished. Sonic didn't believe that tanks were the answer to winning this war, but this was adventure, so he was in.

"We have another problem, the G.U.N. forces have a weapon. A hedgehog who is known as the Ultimate Life Form. You must make sure he is destroyed as well," the Chairman informed, bringing up a hologram of the black and red hedgehog. He looked almost exactly like Sonic, but what was different was the color, and the attitude.

"You know your mission boys, do it right and come back home safe and sound," Chairman Neeko finished.

"Yes sir!" Sonic and Knuckles said respectfully in unison.**

*Smoke curled up from the city Westopolis. Citizens were fleeing the scene of the chaos, as the G.U.N. forces were burning a path to the factories. Sonic ran. His feet felt like they were barely touching the street as they sprinted. Knuckles ran behind, motioning to their soldiers to begin the defensive.

"What about the hedgehog?" Knuckles asked.

"_You _worry about those soldiers! _I_'_ll _worry about the life form!" Sonic shouted back. Pushing his legs harder to run, he began bolting across the street so quickly, he began forming into a blue ball, flipping G.U.N. soldiers into the air as he went. Then he saw him. The black and red hedgehog, equipped with a plasma machine G.U.N., and he was looking straight at him. However, he looked caught off guard when he spotted him. Maybe he believed he was the only one of his kind. Well, Sonic was about to prove him wrong. He grinned, and was about ready to charge right into him when, suddenly, the hedgehog vanished in a blue flash. Sonic felt a blow to the side of the head, knocking him off his feet and onto the pavement. He looked up through bleary vision to see the black and red hedgehog.

"Who are you?" Sonic asked.

"I am Shadow," Shadow said in a low, ominous tone. The last thing Sonic knew before everything went black was him staring into the barrel of a plasma pistol, and hearing Shadow pull the trigger.**

*Knuckles felt something was terribly wrong as he was fighting. For one brief second, he had seen Sonic lying limp on the ground, with the black and red hedgehog towering over him. Then, he saw the black and red hedgehog run like a blur with Sonic over his shoulder. He ran, exactly like Sonic.

Nothing was making any sense to him. As he watched Shadow run, slowing the pace a little bit, he was firing at the G.U.N. soldiers that stood in his way. Why was he firing on his own men?**

*"Westopolis is nearly destroyed sir, reports from soldiers have it that Shadow is firing at our own men sir," a soldier reported to Commander Towers. The Commander's eyes widened in shock. Their own weapon was firing at them?

"Shadow? Deploy all troops now! Destroy him! He's the enemy now!" the Commander said, regret cutting into his voice. He was going to make sure that the project and everything related to it was shut down before any more of these things happen. Then he remembered. It was as if he was facing déjà vu. It was something that had happened fifty years ago, and last time, it ended with bloodshed.**

*Sonic's vision was blurry and unfocused at first, but he already knew what he was looking at before his vision focused. Shadow was looking at him with a lead pipe in his hand. Sonic found himself with his hands and his feet tied together.

"Well hello, I see you're up," Shadow said, a faint shadow of a grin on his face. Sonic's head was still pounding from the blow to the side from before he blacked out.

"What do you want from me?" Sonic demanded. Shadow turned his back to him. Sonic looked around to see they were on a boardwalk in a warehouse.

"C4s have already been planted inside the factories; one false move, and I set them to detonate. We wouldn't want that would we?" Shadow asked.

"What do you want?" Sonic demanded again. Shadow impatiently sneered.

"Join me Sonic; we could be completely neutral in this war, or, we could destroy both sides together. Do not become a pawn of the Heroes. They're only using you, _all _of you heroes, so that they could get what they want for their own personal purposes. I could imagine betrayals within your program hedgehog. Traitors will rise," Shadow persuaded. Sonic was taken aback at that. He remembered seeing the message, probably from Mario, about a turncoat in their midst. Did Shadow know that was true? Did he know who it was? Before he could speak again, Knuckles crashed through the roof with his fists ready. His feet landed on the boardwalk. Fire light outside reflected off the spikes on his gloves. Shadow did a defensive pose with the lead pipe, and charged in, his pipe coming down upon Knuckle's spikes, which clanged and vibrated from the impact. Shadow continued coming at Knuckles with the lead pipe, and Knuckles ducked and dodged from all the swings.

"I will have no part in this war! That blue hedgehog belongs to me! He must know the truth!" Shadow screamed. Without a word, Knuckles pressed his attack, who twirled the lead pipe in both hands, deflecting all the deadly swings. Knuckles did a flip over Shadow's head with the jetpack still on, but Shadow swung around and struck him across the back.**

*The Commander watched the pilots on the bridge of his cruiser lock on target on the warehouse.

"Shadow's in there alright. Permission to fire sir?" One of the pilots asked.

"Fire," the Commander ordered.

"Yes sir," the pilot replied.**

*Knuckles shrieked in pain, but ran for Sonic. Desperately, he grabbed Sonic and quickly struggled out of the hole in the roof he had made, and he began falling. His feet found the pavement, and he began cutting the bonds on Sonic with the spikes on his gloved fists and began to shake him to get him fully awake.

"Come on Sonic! I don't have the speed _you _have, I need you to get us out of here!" Knuckles shouted in his face. Sonic's eyes shot up open, and he grinned, grabbing Knuckles' hand, and his feet got to work. Knuckles found himself moving faster than he had ever moved in his whole life. Once the trauma was over, he was on his knees; his hands were on the ground trembling. He looked up wearily to see a blast from the G.U.N. Commander's ship smash against the warehouse, which exploded seconds after it was hit. Fire and smoke engulfed the burning city, which did not have a lot of buildings left standing. Sonic grabbed Knuckles' hand and led him further away from the burning city. He wasn't absolutely sure, but he wondered if he had really held his hand out toward the burning warehouse. The black and red hedgehog was presumably dead, but the factories were destroyed, which meant that they had lost a lot of heavy weapons. But the G.U.N. forces didn't get the tanks either, so it was a no-win for both sides. What was he going to tell the Chairman?**

*The Commander smiled in pleasure at his success in taking out the traitor Shadow. Now it was time to take care of Doctor Jerome. He punched a code into a computer to contact him. However, strangely, it was Ivo that answered.

"Robotnik? Where's Jerome?" The Commander asked.

"He is busy, what is it?" Ivo patiently asked.

"What do you mean, he's busy? He should have his head on a platter for all I care! Shadow, the Ultimate Life Form, has betrayed us! He was able to destroy the factories before we killed him! He killed several of our men, and threatened to overthrow us! Jerome has done something to him!" The Commander yelled. Ivo didn't budge.

"It is a disappointment yes, but he could still be of some use to us," Ivo argued, his teeth gritted.

"I want him out of there by the time I get back, either dead or kicked out!" The Commander screamed, rage boiling up inside him.

"You don't make the rules here, Commander," Ivo patiently said, and he cut the transmission. The Commander's eyes narrowed.

"We're heading to the ARK! Get us there quickly!" The Commander ordered the pilots. Not wanting to disobey, the pilots immediately got to work to turn the ship around.**

*When Doctor Jerome worked, Ivo always kept quiet, but he watched with a very open interest. Jerome was now working on their backup plan, which was a plan that they had come up with even before they had decided to use Shadow. After the G.U.N. forces' and Shadow's sudden appearance in Mobius, they had kept Shadow imprisoned. Ivo was witnessing the creation of an Android version of Shadow. It was a pity that the real Shadow didn't last, but now he knew their mistakes. Shadow was created with a mind that was too expansive. He knew his mind must be limited only to what he is ordered to do, and think of nothing else.

Ivo anxiously glanced out the window that at the late evening sky. No signs of the Commander's ship yet, but he knew he was coming. He had threatened to shut down the project and everything related to it, which included killing Jerome, whom Ivo believed could still be of some use to them. He had been very useful in his past projects. On the ship colony ARK, everything was deathly silent because of the Commander's threats. Jerome worked diligently, but nervously. Just then, Ivo's eyes widened when he spotted the Commander's command ship slowly riding toward ARK.

Desperately, Ivo ran to a transmission screen and punched a code in to contact the Commander. Thankfully, the Commander answered.

"Commander, hold your fire! We're almost done producing an Android version of Shadow! If you would just give us a little more time, we could demonstrate…" Ivo tried to plead, but the Commander cut him off.

"I have all turrets targeting the ARK Ivo, you have five minutes to evacuate or…"

"At least allow us to present to you the new Shadow! I assure you, you won't be disappointed!" Ivo insisted. There was silence for one terrible moment, and then the Commander spoke again.

"Very well, I will board the ship and see, but I can't guarantee to you that I will not order my men to fire upon the ship and end this." Ivo breathed out a long sigh of relief, thanked the Commander, and signed off. He looked back at Jerome, who had stopped his work to listen.

"Ivo Robotnik, I swear, if you…" Jerome tried saying, but Ivo would not hear it.

"I want you to finish that project or it's over for _all _of us!" he sneered. Jerome whirled around and continued working. Ivo turned his back on him, and ran for the hangar. A small ship with the G.U.N. insignia on it had already landed, and the Commander stepped out, with several soldiers following close behind. One of the Commander's hands was fingering a pistol in his holster.

"Commander, the Doctor is just now putting the finishing touches to the Android, the new Shadow; you won't be disappointed," Ivo assured him, his hands nervously wringing together. He had never felt this nervous since…

"Well get me to the lab, Robotnik, take me to him!" The Commander ordered. Ivo growled, but nodded and led the Commander back to the operating room. Inside, Ivo grinned when he saw that the Android was alive and moving. He looked exactly like Shadow. But this time, his mind was loyal only to them. He was silently looking around, taking in his surroundings. Jerome had a nervous smile on his face, which was one of feeling success, but was also in fear of having everything collapse around him. He looked at the Commander, hoping that he wasn't about to die.

"It appears I may have been wrong, but how do you know this one won't go rogue like the _real _one?" the Commander demanded, as he walked around Shadow, examining him. Ivo's smile widened, realizing that he just might not die today. Everybody jumped when Shadow began muttering to himself.

"Maria…Maria…" he babbled under his breath, clutching his head with both his hands.

"…Maria, oh Maria…I'm so sorry…"

"What's going on? What's wrong with him?" The Commander demanded. Jerome rushed to Shadow's side.

"He must be experiencing memory flashes. He possesses the same memory that the original Shadow had," he explained. He tried reaching a hand out to Shadow, but he slapped it away.

"I promised Maria I will destroy the humans...I promised..." he continued. The Commander violently shook his head.

"This is unacceptable! Doctor, find a way to erase the Android's memory! We can't use him in this condition! He may try to follow the same footsteps as the original Shadow and send this entire military crashing down!" He demanded. Jerome gulped.

"Yes sir, I will get to that right away," he promised. Ivo nervously watched the Commander turn around and storm out of the lab.**

*Ivo sat in what used to be Doctor Gerald's private office, sorting through journals, handwritten by Gerald himself, and finding items that looked like they were special to the doctor. But what was most interesting to him were the security camera recordings, specifically one, which was one of the last. Ivo played the recording, where, on a black and white screen, he saw a group of soldiers, with the insignia of G.U.N on them, surrounding Doctor Gerald. Behind him stood a girl, and with one hand, she clutched a hedgehog's hand. The hedgehog was Shadow.

"_Please, we can work this out! Shadow is much more capable, he has moral thinking! He could never become a threat!_" Gerald insisted to the soldiers. But then, Ivo saw the young woman speak up. Even on a recording, he could see that her eyes were welling with tears

"It's not fair," she muttered. The lead soldier in the room aimed his G.U.N. at her.

"What?"

"I said it's not fair!" She insisted.

"Maria, please…" Gerald begged.

"My grandfather is right! Shadow is capable of being so much! You can't take that away from him! He may be artificial, but he is still a living being!" Maria pointed an accusing finger at the lead soldier, "you want to take all that away from him!"

"Maria, please!" Gerald begged again. But Maria violently shook her head and grabbed Shadow's shoulder, pulling him close.

"Maybe some day you'll understand," she said, her voice choked in grief. Ivo continued to watch as Maria ran out of the operation room with a dazed and confused Shadow.

"Stop her! Shoot her if you have to!" The lead soldier ordered the men that had escorted him in. The soldiers immediately obeyed, and ran out with their plasma pistols drawn. Ivo paused the recording and fast-forwarded until a soldier reentered the room, reporting that Maria had been captured, but had managed to release Shadow from the ship first. Deciding he had seen all that he needed to see, Ivo shut the recording off. Then, as he looked around at the desk, he then noticed a picture frame of Gerald and Maria. In the photograph, the two of them looked so content and happy, and now all of that had been taken away from them. Ivo's eyes narrowed. How could _he_ care? Casting the photo aside instead of crushing it in his hand, he turned toward the large window in the office, beginning to feel nervous about the growing storm outside. But he was completely unprepared to see a blue hedgehog crash through the window. Ivo jumped back.

"Hey there Robotnik! Never seen you before face to face! I followed the Commander's ship here to see where you guys hang out!" The blue hedgehog taunted. Ivo was speechless for half a second, but, not to be humiliated, he quickly recovered.

"You…you're that blasted hedgehog!" Ivo gasped.

"Maybe if you played nice, I wouldn't have to break all your toys," The hedgehog mocked.

"Fool! You've made a grave mistake coming here!" Ivo shouted pulling out a plasma pistol from his holster.

"You will not stop me from getting what I want! That's all _I _need! A hedgehog!" Ivo continued, and fired off a few rounds from his pistol, all of which the blue hedgehog dodged away from.

"Hey! What about formalities first, eh? You should know my name, it's pretty cool! It's Sonic!" Sonic shouted, continuing to dodge the plasma bolts Ivo sent at him.

"Well Sonic, I'm the greatest genius in the world! You have no idea who I am!" Ivo screamed. It was true. This hedgehog had no idea, and he wasn't about to tell him either. Not yet. Lightning crackled outside, lighting up the dark sky. As if on queue, Shadow burst in, looking as if he had just woken up and had realized he was late for something.

"What? What's going on?" Shadow demanded. Sonic gasped.

"You? I thought you were dead," Sonic admitted. Shadow frantically looked around for an exit, ran toward a jetpack hanging on the wall, put it on and jumped out the emergency exit door in the back of the office. Ivo stood stunned, wondering why he hadn't moved to stop him. He ran toward the open door and looked out. He couldn't see Shadow anywhere. Frustrated, he turned around to face Sonic again, only to see that Sonic wasn't there. Ivo threw his pistol down in anger.

No matter. They will catch Shadow, and destroy Sonic. We just need to hope that our spy does its duty, Ivo thought to himself. A faint smile broke out on his face. He was winning. He could feel it. A rising excitement that everything will eventually turn out the way he had wanted it to for so many years.**

**NOTES: Here, we get to see a different side to Ivo. Though Ivo has had very little "screen time" in the previous stories, the idea was to show Ivo get a little agitated here when he meets Sonic for the first time. It was important to show that there is a different side to Ivo that makes him a deeper, more complex character. He isn't everything that he appears to be. It was very important to write this encounter between Sonic and Ivo well, because this scene really counts for what is to come, and where Sonic and Ivo's rivalry will go.**

**The idea of Shadow being an Android actually comes from the ****_Shadow the Hedgehog _****video game and Shadow is an Android in ****_Sonic X_****. Doctor Gerald and Maria are characters from the game as well. **

**The idea was to introduce Shadow as a very edgy, almost insane character, rather than the silent, brooding character we see in the Sonic franchise. His near-insanity is supposed to reflect on the life he had before he ended up with the G.U.N. forces.**


	6. Chapter 6: Prophecy

**The (*) symbol used once signals the start of a new scene while the (*) symbol used TWICE signals the END of a scene.**

Chapter 8

*Sonic rode in the co-pilot's seat in a cramped fighter ship with Amy piloting. Mile's ship the _Tour _had taken heavy damage during a sky battle some time after Robotnik's ship _The_ _Tyrant _had been destroyed. He and Amy were heading to Chun-Nan where rumor had it that Mario was spotted there. Nothing had been confirmed, but the Chairman believed it was important to check, which was perfectly okay with Sonic. It had been a week since his first encounter with Ivo Robotnik and Shadow, and he needed to go out and do something, even if was possibly just an inspection. He was tired of his head hurting from all the questions jumping around inside. Was that really the same Shadow that had showed up on the ship, or was it a replica? Would he try to come back and take him again? Sonic had also been keeping a very sharp eye out for the turncoat that he was warned about earlier onboard _The Tyrant_.

No one was showing any suspicious activity, but he noticed a rising frustration from W and W.L, the men he had faced off against when he was first recruited. He couldn't quite nail down exactly what it was they were frustrated about, but they seemed to be taking a large interest in the Chairman's experiments. They had been demanding to see an experiment that was only known as Project 60, but Sonic didn't know exactly what Project 60 was. He would've liked to ask the Chairman, but the only times he got to talk to the Chairman was when he was being sent on another mission, in which case he was too excited to talk about something personal. Other than that, the Chairman was nowhere to be seen. Sonic was still keeping the truth that there was a spy in their midst so that conflict and distrust could be prevented between each other. If they were going to win this war, they needed to do it as a team.

"We're here," Amy announced. Sonic looked out to see a fancy village in front of him. All the buildings were small except for one large one in the back, which looked like a monastery. Amy lowered the ship down so that it was almost touching the river below them. She set it down on a flat mound at the edge of the island. The cockpit opened up, and Sonic anxiously jumped out. Dark men with swords were already approaching them. All of them except the leader wore the same light tan-colored robes. The leader wore a nature green robe with a tall hat, which was also green. They looked like they had been a darker tan, but had faded from being out in the sun for long periods of time. All of the warriors had hair as black as ash.

"Let _me _do the talking," Sonic said. Amy rolled her eyes, taking her helmet off. Sonic had noticed that she wasn't using her helmet as often when they went out on missions. And yet, it made Sonic happy.

"Hey guys, we're not here to hurt you, we just…" he tried, but the leader of the group of warriors moved the tip of his sword to Sonic's neck.

"State your business," the warrior demanded. Sonic chuckled.

"I was just getting to that. I'm Sonic, and me and my friend are here to search for a friend that's been taken by the G.U.N. forces," Sonic explained.

"The G.U.N. forces have no presence here," the green warrior replied. Well, what a disappointment.

"Oh, well, in that case, I guess there's no point hanging around…" Sonic said, but the warrior put the flat of his sword on his shoulder, which made Sonic shiver.

"Wait," he said, and he turned to his fellow warriors, speaking in a different tongue. Sonic looked at Amy to see if she possibly knew what they were saying. But Amy shook her head. Finally, the leader looked at him again.

"Is it possible that you are the one?" He asked. Sonic tilted his head, confused.

"Um…what are you talking about?" Sonic asked. The warrior removed his sword from his shoulder and put it back into his sheath, much to Sonic's joy.

"Follow me," he said simply, and without waiting for Sonic to reply, he turned around and walked toward the village. Sonic turned around to look at Amy and shrugged at her, indicating he was just as confused as she was. Reluctantly, Sonic followed the warriors.

"Could I at least know your name?" Sonic asked.

"Gideon," the leader replied.

"And what do you think I am again?" Sonic asked.

"I believe that you are the One in the prophecy, and the one that will bear the Sword," Gideon replied, with a tone that sounded irritated.

"Sorry I didn't know," Sonic said, exaggeration in his voice.**

*Ivo Robotnik hadn't had a decent meal in a long time. Trying to eat a plate of roasted meat was almost just as hard as trying to get a good shot at a blue hedgehog with super sonic speed. He attempted to stab his fork into the meat again, only for the plate to steer itself away. Ivo tried again, this time with a little more ferocity, but the plate of meat skidded away from him and into the garbage tube which would take it to the incinerator. Ivo threw his fork down onto the table in anger and put his face in his hands. A light on the table flashed red, indicating that there was an incoming transmission. Ivo put it through, revealing a holo-image of a G.U.N. soldier.

"Sir, our spies tell us that the blue hedgehog and the pink one is at Chun-Nan," the soldier informed. Ivo's eyes snapped open.

"Chun-Nan? The place where the…" Ivo remembered reading manuscripts about foretold prophecies that were yet to be fulfilled. Why was Sonic there? There was no G.U.N. presence there, and Ivo had no interest in that village. He turned to the other person standing in the room with him.

"Well, it looks like this might be your chance to get what you want. I already have what I need to accomplish my tasks. This fight is between you and that hedgehog," Ivo said.

"Fine," the person replied.

"You _could _be of some use to me in the future. This could be your test to prove that you can really help me," Ivo pointed out.

"You will not be disappointed," the visitor concluded, and he left the room. Ivo carefully clasped his fingers around a goblet full of red wine, but as he began bringing it to his lips, the wine rebelled, propelling out of the goblet and splattering Ivo all over his eyes and nose. When he slapped his stained face, the wine scattered like scared mice away from it. The holo-image of the soldier snickered.

"Is…is that all sir?" He asked, hardly able to contain himself.**

*Sonic and Amy were led through the village of Chun-Nan toward what looked like a shrine. Around Sonic were tall, fancy buildings that showed off the village's culture. There were paintings of warriors on the sides of some of the buildings, and the people were dressed fancy. Their robes flashed many different colors, which seemed to change color every time they moved. Children were carrying buckets of water from one pump, and women were knitting scarves and sweaters. As they got closer to the shrine Gideon put up a hand.

"It is forbidden for us to go in, except for the prophesied one," Gideon admitted.

"And what makes you think it's me?" Sonic asked.

"The One mentioned in the prophecy is not supposed to be human," Gideon explained. Sonic looked at Amy, knowing of course that she wasn't human either.

"You seem to be the only one that inherits special talents that nobody else has," Gideon said. My speed? Sonic thought to himself, but he didn't suggest it out loud. He was completely caught off guard when Gideon pulled out his sword from his sheath.

"I will challenge you to a duel which will test your abilities. I feel that you have those special traits that can help you win," he said, holding his sword in both hands. He nodded his head to another warrior standing behind him. The warrior pulled his own sword out and threw it toward Sonic. The hedgehog caught it in his hands.

"My advice Amy: stand back," Sonic whispered. Amy reluctantly nodded, and took a few steps back. Everybody that was watching gave Sonic and Gideon their space. Both of them had their eyes locked on each other. To Sonic, all of this just felt like superstition and myths to him, but something in his head kept urging him to go along with this. If the prophecy was indeed about him, then how come he did not hear of this before? He honestly couldn't remember much of his past. A lot of it seemed like a blur. The events in the past couple of weeks with the Heroes of Today didn't give him time to think about his past. He could only think of a few snippets here and there that just felt scrambled and confusing. The sun's rays reflected off of his sword, which felt strangely light in his hands. Finally, his attention came back to Gideon.

"Are you ready?" Sonic asked. Gideon didn't answer. Instead, he sprang forward with his sword. Sonic quickly did a pose, then brought the sword up. Gideon's sword clashed against his with a loud sound. There was a moment of silence and no movement. Sonic could see the awed looks of the villagers and warriors as they watched. Sonic jumped back, and Gideon regained his pose. Now it was Sonic's turn to lash out. Kicking his feet into gear, he charged forward, aiming straight for Gideon's neck. Gideon however, flicked his sword up to parry the move. Finally, the fighting began to quicken its pace. Sonic and Gideon were now taking quick turns lashing out and parrying. Sonic had never wielded a sword before in his life, at least he didn't remember doing such a thing, and he was surprised that he was still alive so far.

Sonic decided it was time to pull a couple different moves. Sprinting forward, he jumped over Gideon's sword with a flip, and swung his sword to slash across his opponent's back, but Gideon had already spun around and parried the move. Sonic aimed for the legs, but Gideon jumped over the quick swing of the sword, and he attempted to bring his sword down across Sonic's head, but Sonic jumped back, and Gideon's sword sank into the grass. He had only just then lifted his head to see Sonic's foot crash against his face, which sent him flying backward down the small hill. Sonic then had an idea. Pulling Gideon's sword out of the ground, he passed it to Amy, and then ran forward, calling upon his speed at full force. He grabbed the dazed Gideon by the leg, and shot back toward the shrine, carrying Gideon with him. He then stopped and angled his own sword at Gideon's neck. Gideon looked up at him with admiration all over his face.

"You have skill, you have your speed," he admitted, a shadow of a smile forming on his face.

"So I'm the One then?" Sonic asked. Gideon got up onto his feet, brushing the dust off of his green cloak.

"One can never be too sure, however, your skills have shown that you are worthy to hear the prophecy," Gideon replied.

"Isn't that type of stuff supposed to be, you know, private?" Sonic asked. Gideon laughed, but without humor.

"If you are the One that the prophecy foretells, then you must hear it so that you may know what you may be facing, for it foretells the world's possible future. This is what it says:

_The weak will tremble_

_At evil's death blow_

_Until the One rises up_

_Its abilities unlike no other_

_A loved one shall make the choice_

_For the One to succeed**_

*"Where did you come from?" Ivo demanded a dazed, stricken being sprawled out on the floor in front of him.

"What? Where…where am I?" The being asked, desperation filling his voice.

"That does not matter right now, who are you?" Ivo insisted.

"Sonic…I must destroy…Sonic," the being pleaded. Ivo looked at Koopa, who was crouched next to him, staring intently at the being lying on the ground, breathing heavily.

"Sonic? You want to destroy Sonic?" Ivo asked.

"Mobius…It…it is in ruins…" The being continued, his eyes welling up with tears.

"Answer this question, do you want to destroy Sonic?" Ivo demanded.

"Yes, I must destroy him…he is the enemy…I _must _destroy him," the being pleaded again. A thin smile spread across Ivo's face.

"I can help you destroy him, but you must be patient," Ivo replied.

"I will do anything sir."

"Good, do not worry, we will have everything figured out. Now, what is your name?" Ivo asked.**

*Sonic could not think of the right word that described how confused and baffled he was.

_The weak will tremble_

_At evil's death blow_

_Until the One rises up_

_Its abilities unlike no other_

_A loved one shall make the choice_

_For the One to succeed_

Those were the words of an ancient prophecy, and everybody in the village of Chun-Nan were beginning to believe that he was the One. Now he was walking into the shrine, where the sword Caliburn was stuck in a large, smooth stone. Gideon had explained to him that if he could pull the Sword out, that could only mean one thing: he was the One.

"You know, I think I could understand why no one comes in here. It's kind of creepy," Sonic shouted over his shoulder. He stared ahead at the sword in the stone.

"Who stabbed the sword into the stone?" Sonic asked.

"They say that Gaia had brought the sword into the shrine himself," Gideon shouted back. Sonic sighed. Gideon had explained to him that Gaia was a force that lived under the earth. There were two parts: Dark Gaia and Light Gaia. The amount of evil and good on Mobius determined how large Dark Gaia and Light Gaia would grow. Sonic noticed a light purple mist drifting around the stone. The mist seemed to be…attracting him. Sonic couldn't get his eyes off of the mist, and he found his feet walking toward the stone without his control. He tried fighting for control of his legs, but they continued walking toward it, rebelling against his mind.

No, no! What are you doing? Sonic thought to himself. Finally, before he even realized it, he was standing right by the stone. A trembling, gloved hand reached out and grasped the hilt of the sword. Sweat trickled down Sonic's face as he stared at the hilt gleaming in the sunlight. He shut his eyes tightly, wondering what could possibly happen. The urge to pull the sword out and get this over with was unbearable.

"Hello, Sonic," a familiar voice muttered behind him. Sonic spun around to face the Echidna Knuckles.

"How dare he enter the shrine! How did he get in?" Gideon screamed behind him. Knuckles chuckled.

"Let's just say I took another way in. I apologize for interrupting your rituals, but I'm afraid that sword is mine," he said.

"What?" Sonic backed away. Was Knuckles the spy? The turncoat in their freedom fighter group?

"You impress me hedgehog, for making it this far," Knuckles admitted, posing himself.

"_You_ don't impress me very much Knuckles, how could you betray us?" Sonic demanded, anger rising inside of him. Knuckles growled.

"Enough talk! Almost ten minutes ago I came crawling to Ivo Robotnik begging for an opportunity to please him, and now, in less than that, you will be crawling to me begging for mercy," he declared, his spiky gloves gleaming in the sunlight. Behind him, Amy was beginning to run towards him.

"No, stay Amy! Stay!" Sonic demanded. Amy showed bitter reluctance at first, but then gave up and walked back.

"Smart girl. I've always been impressed with her skills, but I wished I could see her be her own commander once in a while instead of you playing leader on her," Knuckles remarked. Amy's face burned a bright scarlet.

"After I'm done with you, I'm going to search for that Android of Shadow and take care of _him _as well," Knuckles continued.

"There is one thing I could do to stop you," Sonic pointed out. He gestured to the Sword in the stone. Knuckles threw back his head and laughed.

"You are choosing to believe mere fairy tales and myths hedgehog, I thought you were smarter than that!" He scoffed.

"Try me," Sonic replied, then he flipped backwards, and gripped the hilt of the Sword. With both hands, he pulled, calling upon all of the physical strength he could take in. He gritted his teeth. Sweat dripped down his forehead and stung his closed eyes. He was pulling harder than he had ever pulled in his entire life. For him, it didn't take much effort to become the speeding blur he was, but he always knew that physical strength wasn't quite a special talent of his. Just then, he realized the purple mist around the stone was beginning to quicken its spinning, almost until it became like a funnel, picking up speed now and engulfing the blade of the Sword. Sonic wanted to smile, but he continued pulling, feeling victory sprout inside him. But then, the purple mist began spiraling up the blade and around his hands. He heard everybody gasp in terrified shock, which made him open his eyes and see the horror that everybody else was seeing. His hands had become a dark gray. Long nails grew from his hands as he continued clutching the hilt of the Sword, this time beyond his control. He couldn't move his hands.

The pain was almost excruciating which sent him crashing to his knees, which were changing to a dark gray as well. He felt his head distort, and his teeth grew and became as sharp as knives. As he screamed in pain, he could hear his voice change. It got lower. Gruffer. His hands finally let go of the sword hilt, he fell on all fours, and let out a bloodcurdling roar, which was definitely not a hedgehog sound.

"What the…" Sonic heard Knuckles stumble back in terror.

"That…that's an interesting look for you. Festive," Knuckles spat out. Behind him, everybody gasped in horror and awe.

"He's been cursed by Dark Gaia, he is not worthy!" Gideon shouted. Knuckles recovered, and turned to the people watching.

"Now you people see the error of your ways! Sonic is now a furry beast because of you!"

"No!" Amy screamed from behind him.

"Shut up, Amy! I'll take care of this!" Sonic yelled, a large, furry hand on his aching head. Without really realizing what he was doing, his arm stretched toward Knuckles and grasped his neck, lifting him up off his feet.

"You've been spying on us this whole time! You meant to betray us!" Sonic screamed. Knuckles didn't say anything as he struggled to get out of the werehog's grip.

"Sonic, put him down!" Amy shouted. Her voice seemed to cut through his mind like a bad wound, and he dropped Knuckles and stepped back, realizing he had gone too far. He looked down at the ground feeling humiliated.

"Amy, I'm…I'm sorry, maybe I deserve to be transformed into this," Sonic muttered. Amy ran into the shrine despite Gideon's wishes, and as she did, the Dark Gaia energy drifting around in the shrine seemed to thicken.

"No Sonic, you've always been a good friend to me. I want the hedgehog back," Amy admitted, walking up to him. A horrible shrieking sound exploded from the Dark Gaia energy, and it started retreating into the stone that was holding the Sword. Out of the corner of his eye, Sonic could see Knuckles staggering up onto his feet and regaining his balance. Anger burned in his eyes.

"Don't…try it," Sonic replied, but the Echidna bolted for the Sword. Sonic got on all fours and launched himself at Knuckles, knocking him away from the Sword, which seemed to somehow glow. The ground began to tremble, and the sky over the shrine began to turn dark. Lightning lit up the ominous clouds above them. Dark Gaia energy rose from the ground underneath them, most of it surrounding Knuckles. But he continued staring at Sonic with a hating look as if nothing was happening.

"That Sword is mine!" He declared.

"Not if I have anything to say about it!" Sonic shouted back. He looked at Amy, and motioned to her to stand back. Facing Knuckles again, he prepared himself for a fight, which he felt was going to be one of the biggest so far in his entire life.

Knuckles lashed out at Sonic, his sharp spikes reflecting off the glowing Sword. He attempted to slash them across Sonic's throat, but the hedgehog jumped back, and stretched his arm out, grabbing Knuckles and hurling him against the wall. But he was able to recover quickly and jump into the air and coming down toward Sonic's head, but Sonic was impatient to wait for Knuckles to make his move. He jumped up, delivering several punches to Knuckle's face. But the Echidna was able to recover and kick Sonic in the chest, which barely affected him. Sonic grabbed Knuckles by the shoulders, and shoved him down back toward the ground. As soon as Knuckles and Sonic hit the ground, thick Dark Gaia energy exploded from the ground, which was so thick that Sonic couldn't see anything else.**

*Sleep was something that Chairman Neeko was barely able to get during his long and stressful life. He turned over on his bed, trying to close his eyes and rest. But every time he closed them, he continued getting flashes of memories that had been haunting him for a long time. The guilt from past deeds plagued him and kept him awake, barely able to grab rest from it all. He was so unsure about almost everything, but he knew one thing for sure. The hedgehog Sonic would play a large part to bring peace to Mobius, tear it away from Robotnik's grip, and end the man's obsessions.**

**NOTES: It seems that in the first season, I brought up so many questions, but didn't give enough answers. Well, that was supposed to be the point. In this chapter, we see for the first time that Sonic can't remember most of his past, which causes some tension as to where he might've come from and what kind of a history he had before he joined the Heroes of Today. We also see the subject of Project 60 get brought up again. With this and two more chapters left in this season, it was a good idea to kind of round up most of the questions that have been brought up throughout the season. Project 60, the spy, Shadow's whereabouts, the prophecy, and Ivo's strange food incident are all mysteries. We also get a mention that W and W.L are beginning to demand seeing Project 60, which is a tension that will be explored further later on. **

**In the Sonic franchise, Knuckles was described as a very gullible character. He had betrayed Sonic more than once in the TV series ****_Sonic X_****, so I wanted to show Knuckles do this as a starting point for his own little journey throughout the series.**

**In this chapter, elements were taken from the games ****_Sonic Unleashed _****(the Werehog, and Gaia), and ****_Sonic and the Black Knight _****(the sword Caliburn), and yet I added elements from the legend The Sword in the Stone to make it a little more interesting. **


	7. Chapter 7: Betrayal

**The (*) symbol used once signals the beginning of a new scene while the (*) symbol used TWICE signals the END of a scene.**

Chapter 7

*Before Sonic and Amy had gone to Chun-Nan, Amy was staring up at the stars through the largest window onboard _The_ _Trident_. Sonic sat down on the bench next to her.

"What are you doing?" Sonic asked. Amy smiled, but didn't look at him.

"Watching the stars," she simply replied. Sonic rolled his eyes.

"Mobius is in danger of being taken over by that egghead Ivo, and you're watching the stars," he said. Amy shrugged.

"Sure," she said. Sonic sighed and gave up. Amy was an impossible girl, he had figured out that much. He had so much on his mind, that he never felt relaxed. It had been five days since his encounter with Ivo on the ARK, and he hadn't been sent on a mission since then. He had been confronted by the Chairman for disobeying orders when he had told him not to pursue the ARK after the factories in Westopolis were destroyed. But of course, Sonic had gone on ahead and boarded the ARK anyway. The Chairman had pointed out to Sonic that _he_ would give Amy orders when they were on missions together and expected her to obey them, but when he himself was given orders, Sonic would rebel. Over the past few weeks, Sonic was surprised at his own ability to give orders, and he and Amy had done rather well at working together because of them.

He had been craving for action so much, that over the past few days, he would go out and take practice runs across the field. But then, Amy made a good point. Besides, the stars _did _look beautiful. That night was indeed a gorgeous one. But it was only a few minutes before Sonic groaned.

"It's too quiet, I can't stand it anymore," he admitted, looking down at the floor. Amy looked at him.

"It's important to have moments of peace and quiet, otherwise we will never get used to the day when the conflict finally ends. You _do _want the G.U.N. forces overthrown, don't you?" Amy asked. Sonic's head shot up to look at her. With one hand, Amy was fingering the chipped piece of rock on her necklace.

"Of course I do Amy, it's just that…I feel like we're not doing enough," he admitted.

"That new rookie Daisy was recently sent on a mission," Amy pointed out.

"What about everybody else? What about me?" Sonic demanded. Amy sighed. Sonic was lucky to have a friend that was patient with him. Everybody else in the Heroes of Today didn't seem to have that same kind of patience that Amy had. Sonic had noticed that even Luigi was growing more and more agitated, and it was becoming harder to talk to him.

"I don't have all the answers Sonic, I really don't," Amy admitted, and she didn't say another word to Sonic on the bench that night, and Sonic didn't say another word to Amy.

*Sonic and Amy were unaware that Miles was watching them. He walked away with tears in his eyes. It was true then. Sonic didn't remember him. What had happened? What caused Sonic to lose his memory? He never asked about the Freedom Fighters...

Miles stumbled into his room, where the floor was littered with tools. Mechanical engineering was what he did best. It was his passion. He swept a tear that was going down his cheek away and tried to occupy himself with a part that would go to a new plane he was building. This one was going to be unlike any plane he had ever built before. He thought about the Freedom Fighters. He had run away from them so that he could find Sonic and hopefully rekindle their long-forgotten friendship. Now, he had to wait and see if Sonic's amnesia would pass. If Sonic's old memories didn't return soon, he would say something about it. He was desperate to say something.

Though his name was Miles, everybody, including Sonic, had called him Tails.**

*Within the thickness of the Dark Gaia energy, Sonic believed he saw shapes, which became clearer each second, until Sonic found himself looking at colorful images, familiar ones and unfamiliar ones. He could see Shadow the Android sleeping fitfully under a tree. He could see Chairman Neeko, but he was looking down at something. He could also see a medallion, or an amulet, he couldn't tell. He saw several beings he didn't recognize, but one looked like a hedgehog, but it wasn't Shadow. It had a different color…

But the images vanished before he could make any guesses, and he stared down at Knuckles, whom he had taken down with him to the ground inside the shrine in Chun-Nan. Knuckles grabbed him and, with much effort, he pulled Sonic off of him and staggered up, looking around at the Dark Gaia energy that began to swirl around them quicker like a funnel. Finally, the ground trembled violently, throwing Knuckles off his feet again. Somewhere outside the funnel of Dark Gaia energy, Sonic could hear Amy shouting his name in raw fear.

"I will not be a monster," Sonic muttered. Before he was able to cry it out, the Dark energy began to fade, until it all finally spiraled into the Stone. Thunder roared over them, and rain began to fall from the clouds and pelt Sonic and Knuckles, and everybody watching. The Sword Caliburn gave off one last glow, brighter than usual, which blinded Sonic's eyes. Mercifully however, the blinding lights eventually faded completely to nothing. After a moment of awkward silence, Knuckles finally found his voice.

"I am not finished with you," he said; and with that, he jumped away into the sky and out of Sonic's eyesight. Looking down at himself, and looking at his hands, Sonic realized, much to his relief, that he was a hedgehog again. He was about to smile, say something comical, but when he saw the terrified looks on everybody, including Gideon, he stopped.

"Hey, it's a victory right?" Sonic asked. Gideon shook his head in grief.

"The balance between Dark Gaia and Light Gaia are broken and the Dark will gain power, and eventually rise out of the ground," Gideon explained, his voice grave and choked in grief.

"But, the Dark Gaia energy fled, we all saw it," Amy said, her voice trembling in fear. Gideon shook his head again.

"What you've seen with the Dark Gaia energy will only be the beginning, the Dark will eventually fully awaken and rise out of the ground, splitting the world apart," Gideon said. Sonic was speechless. He realized in horror that he must've failed and put Mobius in great danger. He watched Gideon turn to Amy.

"Sonic is cursed by Dark Gaia until the entity is driven back underground, this won't be the last time that he will turn into that beast," he admitted. Amy looked at Sonic, terror and grief all over her face.

"Amy…" Sonic stopped, and turned to Gideon, his hands balling into angry fists, "I will stop this from happening, but I _need _to know, am I the One in the prophecy?" Sonic demanded. There was a horrible moment of silence as he and Gideon stared at each other.

"I do not know Sonic, truthfully I don't, but I know that if you are, you're not yet ready," Gideon replied.

"Not yet…not…what's _that _supposed to mean?" Sonic screamed, stomping his foot on the ground. But Gideon shook his head.

"Maybe it was a mistake to introduce the prophecy to you. I really believed you were the One, but now that is still to be determined," he said. Tears welled up in Sonic's eyes. All this, transforming into a Werehog, battling Knuckles, and even possibly seeing part of the future, or the present, was for nothing? Gideon let out a shaky, heavy sigh, and motioned for Sonic to walk out of the shrine. Hanging his head in grief, Sonic slowly walked out of the shrine, but not before taking one more look at Caliburn in the stone behind him. Amy put a comforting hand on his shoulder, and helped him down the small hill back toward the ship. No one followed them.**

*Knuckles was not looking forward to confronting Ivo after failing to apprehend Sonic, but he believed that what he saw was important information for Ivo, to ensure the fall of the Heroes of Today. He boarded Ivo's new cruiser the _Shunned Dealer_, and headed for Ivo's personal office, ignoring the soldiers that were trying to stop him. The doors to Ivo's office slid open, revealing a small desk with a chair that had its back turned to him, so he couldn't really tell if Ivo was there or not. The chair was turned to a large screen on the wall that had a map, revealing several different villages. Some had red Xs on them, but others had the word 'CONFIRMED' over it. What was Ivo looking for?

"Mr. Robotnik, I have some information," Knuckles began, but he saw Ivo raise a hand, indicating for him to stop.

"Let me just stop you right there Knuckles. I'm sorry, but the G.U.N. forces have no further use for you," he admitted with a deadly, merciless voice. Knuckles was about to say something else, but he gasped as he felt his feet lift off the ground. He felt himself turn around so that he was looking behind him. There, standing in the doorway with his hand raised, was a silver hedgehog.

"Knuckles, meet Silver, a hedgehog from the distant future, and he is very anxious to destroy Sonic," Ivo said. Knuckles gasped as he felt himself get blown backwards against the wall next to Ivo's desk.

"Silver will be a worthy comrade to help me carry out my plans," Ivo continued, getting up from his chair. Knuckles watched Silver flick his hand to the left, and an emergency exit door slid open behind him revealing an escape pod. Knuckles felt a horrible sense of helplessness when he felt himself get lifted off the ground again, and, like a rag doll, get flung into the pod. The door slid closed by Silver's moving hand, and the pod jettisoned toward the river below him. He felt a terrible impact as the pod crashed into the river, and began sinking. Knuckles desperately tried the controls to get the door to open, but none of them worked. Looking at the spikes on his gloves, he stabbed them into the glass window on the door, and cut a big hole through it. Crawling out, he swam toward the surface. Breathing fresh air, he looked around. The evening sun was slowly setting off in the distance, and the _Shunned Dealer_ was already at a safe distance.

At this point, Knuckles didn't know what to do. He wanted the Sword, to receive power beyond anyone's understanding, but now Chun-Nan would be more alert now that they have seen him. He realized that going back to _The_ _Trident _was not a good idea either. No doubt Sonic would tell the Chairman about his betrayal. He would no longer be welcomed. He realized that it was time to begin his search for Shadow; and once he would find him, the two of them could try to weaken both sides together, and more importantly, use Project 60 for their own use. The overwhelming power of the experiment was so comforting a thought that Knuckles found himself salivating at. Power was his own goal, and no one had the freedom to take that goal from him. He began swimming across the river, not quite sure where to start in his search for the Android, but he knew he would find him eventually, even if it took him years.**

*Sonic sat in the co-pilot's seat of the small ship as Amy flew their way back to the _Trident_. In all his life, at least as much as he could remember, Sonic had never felt so depressed. He had joined the Heroes of Today in the hopes of bringing Mobius back to peace, but now it seemed that he had brought a danger more dangerous than the G.U.N. forces into the world. When will he become a Werehog again? When will Dark Gaia rise out of the ground? He _was_, however, satisfied that he had figured out who the spy was that could have caused more destruction on them. But…

"When we were on _The_ _Tyrant_, back when we had our first mission together, I found a warning inside Mario's cell. It said that there was a spy in our midst," Sonic confessed to Amy. Amy looked at him in shock.

"How come you never told me?" She asked. Sonic groaned. He knew that was coming.

"I didn't want everybody to distrust each other and grow bitter. That's the _last_ thing we need in order to win this war," he admitted.

"But we know now, right? It was Knuckles," Amy replied. Sonic sat back, his head against the chair with his eyes closed, his mind deep in thought. As he thought back to the events at Chun-Nan, he tried to remember something. Something that Knuckles had said.

_Almost ten minutes ago I came crawling to Ivo Robotnik begging for an opportunity to please him_,_ and now, in less than that_,_ you will be crawling to _me_ begging for mercy_.

"No, he's not the real spy!" Sonic shouted his realization out loud. Sweat was dripping down Amy's face now, her face turning red.

"He's…no?" She asked. Sonic shook his head.

"Knuckles said that he had met with Ivo for an opportunity to prove his worth ten minutes before he confronted me. I found the warning about a week and a half ago," Sonic realized. Amy's hands were trembling at the steering yoke now.

"Amy…" But Sonic didn't get to say another word before he felt a terrible blow to the side of his head, and everything went black.**

Journal Entry by Nick

11:00 Hours

There are lots of things that keep me on edge. It is the strange, vast world I live in, the magic behind it, and the discoveries that no other man from Earth has made, at least, no records have been made of those discoveries.

So much guilt has plagued me in the last twenty years of my life. I have often pondered over these memories. Sometimes they've come in the form of nightmares. Most of the time, among so many other memories, I always think back to that terrible day when I was separated from my partner, my best friend Amy. Being sucked into a funnel, which took me here, and being snatched away from her is not something I consider to be a good day. But I have a way to get back to her, and I will do whatever it takes to do it, even if it means the deaths of innocents who dare step in my way.

Here, these people gave me a new name, and though I do not strike out at people when they address me by that name, I choose to call myself by the name I was given on Earth, and that is not something that this world can take away from me.

In conclusion, I write down my hopes that I will find Amy again. If that fails, I might as well be dead, because I cannot get her image out of my head. That necklace with the chipped piece of meteorite around her neck is one image that has burned into my brain for so long. It was something that never came to be, but I dream that it did. It's horrible enough that I took that away from her and gave it to someone else, something that was my own creation.

Nick

Or, as they call me here, Ivo Robotnik

**NOTES: So, at this point you finally get answers to some of your questions. I had originally planned for the reader to not find out about the mystery behind the boy and girl at the beginning of this season until halfway through "Season Two", but the original ending for Season One wasn't very satisfying, leaving almost nothing to be excited for. Originally, Sonic wasn't going to learn about the exact wording of the prophecy until "Season Two" as well. However, this was of course moved so that the season could end giving the reader a tension that would make them want to keep reading to see what happens next. Is he really the One? Or is it someone else entirely?**

**To clear things up in case there's confusion, Ivo is the boy that fell into the lake at the beginning of Chapter One, and was separated from the girl that tried to save him who's the love of his life, a girl named Amy. He built Amy the hedgehog so that he had a resemblance of the REAL Amy around. There's still so much to Ivo that I haven't revealed yet, ha ha! You'll just have to keep reading!**


	8. Chapter 8: Doom and Poison

**The (*) symbol used ONCE signals the start of a new scene while the (*) symbol used TWICE signals the END of a scene.**

Chapter 8

Sixty Years Ago…

*Peter Justice watched the small, young hedgehog walk with difficulty as he held his father's hand down the hallway toward him. The two of them had just returned from the sergeant's office. The child had lost his mother a few weeks ago, and the father was hoping that the sergeant would take the child to raise him and train him to become a soldier, just like the rest of them.

"Derrick, were you successful?" Peter asked. The father sighed wearily, but nodded.

"Yes, he's your responsibility now," Derrick confirmed. Peter looked down at the lad holding Derrick's hand.

"You better watch your equipment. The lad is three years old, and yet, he has already taken a very great interest in mechanics. You should see him sitting on the floor examining wrenches…" Derrick commented, but his voice trailed off as he thought about that. Peter grinned.

"We'll take good care of him. Feel free to come and check on him whenever you'd like. After all, you owe us one," he pointed out. Derrick sighed wearily again.

"The boy has been drawing pictures. Some dome-shaped thing. He likes to call it the roboticizer," he said. Peter frowned.

"Roboticizer?" He asked. Derrick chuckled.

"You'd be quite surprised what kids could think up these days," he said.

"What is his name?"

"Charles. But we call him Chuck."**

*Peter sat in the passenger's seat of a roofless jeep, wiping his laser rifle with a rag. The driver was a good friend named George. He wore an average soldier's outfit with a small cap over his head. Mobius was in an uproar about how there seemed to be less humans and more of other creatures. Most of the Overlander empire was made up of humans, and their goal was to increase the planet's population with Overlanders, even if it meant getting rid of all other talking creatures. Humans on Mobius were normally hostile toward these talking animals, but the Freedom Fighters fought for the freedom of these creatures, and to find peace from the empire's tyrannical grip. They believed that there was something special about these hedgehogs, echidnas, bats, and foxes. A good portion of the Freedom Fighters was a variety of creatures, working with the humans to gain their freedom and independence.

Now there were rumors of the empire using very special equipment to transform soldiers for their own use. This equipment was not technology or electronic. It was raw power from special artifacts that people searched the entire world looking for.

In the back seat sat two other soldiers, one human, and one fox. The human's name was Carl and the fox was Jason.

"This is a good place to stop," George suggested, halting the jeep in the middle of a war-torn field. Peter got out of the jeep, holding his laser rifle in two hands and looking around at his surroundings. The field had once been beautiful, with green grass sparkling under the sunlight. But the war had torn the field apart, burning away a lot of the grass and vegetation. Peter could see that anybody could pass by and mistaken the field to be a desert. Noticing something in the ground, he bent down and moved a gloved hand across a clear, fresh footprint.

"Someone was here. This track is fresh," Peter told the others, who walked over to him to investigate. Carl, who was younger than Peter and George, bent down beside him.

"Yeah, you're right," he said, aiming his rifle in all directions, tensing for danger. Peter felt his spine tingle in anxiety.

"If it's an ambush, we'll need more men to reinforce us," he said, and he turned to Jason, "contact command and request reinforcements."

Then, as he got back onto his feet, not taking his eyes off the prints, the explosion happened.**

*Present Day

During the same time that Sonic and Amy were at Chun-Nan, W and W.L. cautiously walked across a boardwalk wearing G.U.N. commando armor that they were given back at _The_ _Trident _to infiltrate the enemy base over the river. This was the location where Mario was abducted by the enemy, so the two brothers knew that they had to stay together. Their mission was to steal a sample of an old virus that the G.U.N. forces were able to take and obviously planned to use for their own purposes. The sample would be analyzed back at the _Trident _to see what the virus was capable of and how they could possibly stop it.

"Stay sharp. We need to find the lab and steal a sample. It doesn't matter if they eventually find out we're here," W whispered to W.L beside him. W.L. nodded, and trotted just a few steps ahead of him. The two of them were growing more and more restless in the past few days. He wanted answers about a recent project only known to everybody except the Chairman as Project 60, but the Chairman continually refused to give him answers, which was something that that he detested. W.L was _also _irritated because he desired to see it. To use it.

During their brief meeting with the Chairman immediately before they left, the hedgehog Sonic and the other new recruit Amy were being briefed as well for their mission to Chun-Nan. W had been glancing at Amy with a little suspicion as to her interest in his and his brother's mission as if she was supposed to remember their task. Amy appeared to be somewhat of a mystery to him. She didn't seem to come clean with everybody all the time, as if she was hiding something that she did not want everybody to know.

Shaking these thoughts out of his head for now, W continued the casual walk to another building built atop a platform, connected with the intersecting boardwalks that led from one place to the other. A screen on the wall indicated that it was the storage facility. Injecting a G.U.N. military ID into a slot on the wall, the door willingly slid open revealing a room full of crates, creating towers, some touching the ceiling above. The light inside was very dim, and even flickered. In one special corner was a desk where small glass tubes containing a red liquid were lined up carefully. The liquid in the tubes bubbled and spat up drops into the air.

"I'll take a sample. Watch the door," W whispered, approaching the tubes. He removed his helmet and placed it on the desk next to the tubes. Carefully, he picked up a tube, then removed an empty glass canteen from his belt and very cautiously poured a little of the red liquid into the canteen. A scarlet smoke leaked from the canteen as he poured. He screwed the lid back onto the canteen and clipped it to his belt.

"Done. Let's get out of here," W whispered to W.L. W.L nodded, and the two of them quickly left the storage room, sealing the door up before leaving. Now all they had to do was get back to their stolen G.U.N. shuttle and get out of there. The mission was going smooth so far, maybe a little _too _smooth. As they walked leisurely down the boardwalk, the two of them heard a strange purring sound.

"Why leave so soon?" A sadly familiar voice purred. W decided to turn around and look up at the familiar figure on the roof of the storage facility. Crouched there was a special G.U.N. agent with a black cloak, with a hood thrown over her head which shadowed her seductive eyes. Black wings opened up on her furry back.

"We're kind of in a hurry, Rouge," W complained. W.L growled next to him and attempted to approach her, which W stopped by putting a hand on his chest.

"Wait," he ordered. It was time to ask this agent a couple questions.

"The whole base here knows we're here don't they?" He asked. Rouge shifted her pose on the roof.

"That's right," she replied.

"How would they know that?" He asked. He heard a low sigh from Rouge.

"Not everybody in your freedom fighter team is trustworthy," she answered. W looked at his brother beside him, who was beginning to get more and more restless. Judging from his movements, he wanted to get at Rouge's neck.

"So you're saying there is a spy in our midst?" W asked, knowing pretty well that Rouge wouldn't give him an adequate answer, but he needed to buy time. Rouge let out an annoying laugh.

"Silly boy, like I would tell you," she said, then she stood up and jumped into the air, her wings fluttering, so that her landing in front of W and W.L on the boardwalk was without any noise.

"The G.U.N. soldiers cleared out so that I could take care of you two myself, now, if you would be so kind as to hand over the virus sample," she challenged.**

*Sixty Years Ago…

Peter's eyes shot up open in alarm. His breathing was harsh and fast, but it sounded strangely unnatural. Above him was a bright light, but he couldn't feel his eyes watering. He actually felt extremely light, like he had no weight. He almost couldn't feel his legs. He felt like there was a tube in his head, and electrical energy seemed to be zipping through the tube and into his head. As he lay there trying to remember what happened before he found himself here, he couldn't really recover any of his memories. Everything felt like a blur. The only thing that he could remember was an explosion, which he guessed was what got him here. He could hear voices, some far off, and some very close by.

Confused, he realized that his hearing seemed to have improved. He seemed to be able to hear everything around him. He could hear the energy in the tube on his head, he could hear the voices near and far very clearly, and he could hear crackling, humming energy that seemed to come from seven different sources.

"…The emeralds did their job. This is a successful attempt at seeing all seven of them revealing its power combined…" Peter could hear a gruff, scratchy voice announce. Peter than began to feel uneasy and nervous. He made grunting sounds that did not sound like him. He held up his hand and glanced at it, and gasped. He seemed to be able to see _through _his hand, seeing the wall through his palm. He heard many people gasp around him, and nervously step back. Peter got up from the cot he was lying on, feeling so light. Nothing weighed him down. Then he saw his reflection on the wall from the bright light shining down above him. His shadow looked like a floating, weightless ghost.

"Take him! That black doom cannot be let loose!" Someone screamed. Peter tried to grin, and then realized that he couldn't. He could feel so much power radiating off of him, and somehow, it felt so good. The overwhelming power was too tempting to resist. Nothing was weighing him down. He was invincible. Immortal.

"Black Doom. I like the name," Peter said. He couldn't feel lips moving as he spoke. The voice seemed to come out of every part of his body, so that his voice was everywhere, striking terror into the onlookers surrounding him. Then, he lashed out at the terrified soldiers that surrounded him.**

*Present Day

Shadow bolted upright underneath a tree in the woods. A crash of thunder had jolted him awake. Rain beat down around him, droplets splashing onto the leaves of the tree and then dripping onto him. Huddling closer against the tree branch, he closed his eyes to try to fall back to sleep. He had a strongly uneasy feeling in his stomach that kept him awake, drawing him closer and closer to fear.

**NOTES: I hated the character Black Doom from the video game ****_Shadow the Hedgehog _****because he was so one-dimensional. He had no background, no clear goals, nothing. Just some villain that came out of nowhere and wouldn't shut up long enough for Shadow to talk himself. Here, I had the opportunity to give Black Doom his own origin. Slipping in a scene from Shadow's point of view right after Peter's discovery of what he had become was a great way to foreshadow the dark menace that threatens to loom over him, hopefully making the reader fear for him.**

**Rouge the Bat is not a favorite of mine either, but it was a lot of fun to write about her, taking her personality and going with it, and having her talk to W and W.L was great. Here, we return to W and W.L after quite a few stories without them save a brief mention of them in Chapter 8, which heightens the tension as to where these characters are going to end up. Their anger towards the Chairman is emphasized here.**


	9. Chapter 9: Rescue Mission

**The (*) symbol used once signals the start of a new scene while the (*) symbol used TWICE signals the END of a scene.**

Chapter 9

*W and W.L stood on the boardwalk, unsure of what to do. The virus sample clipped to W's belt felt cold and heavy all of a sudden. He looked nervously at his brother who was trying really hard to find an opening to lash out at Rouge, who stood tauntingly in front of them. Finally, Rouge lashed out with a long dagger.

"Wait!" W tried stopping W.L, but his brother was already away from his side and meeting Rouge in combat. He had a dagger as well, and the two fought their way down the boardwalk and back toward the storage facility.

"I've seen better moves than _that_, handsome!" Rouge mocked as she continued to desperately defend herself. W stood watching helplessly. He couldn't get into a tough fight, for fear that the sample clipped to his belt would fall off and do something that could affect him or his brother. He watched Rouge flip and kick W.L backward in midair, then run over to the control panel next to the door of the storage facility. She slid her I.D in, allowing the door to slide open.

"Oh no, she's not doing what I think she's doing," W groaned partially to himself. Unfortunately, W.L didn't wait long enough to think. He ran in after her. W couldn't just stand there and see what would happen. He had to go after his brother, who had obviously completely lost his mind. Curse the Heroes of Today for this! Curse the G.U.N. forces! Curse that egghead Ivo! He was going in after his brother even if it meant jeopardizing the entire mission that had started out so smoothly, but was doomed from the start. W began running toward the facility where the two psychotic combatants continued their way into the facility. But before he could get to the door, it slid shut and locked itself. Frustrated, W grabbed his stolen I.D card and jammed it into the slot, and the door willingly slid back open. Inside he could see Rouge and W.L jumping from crate to crate, returning fire at each other with plasma pistols. Landing on one crate which wobbled underneath him, W.L jumped and kicked Rouge off her crate, sending her flying down and hitting the floor below.

"W.L! That's enough! We can't stay in here!" W shouted, signaling his brother to get out. He heard Rouge laugh.

"Silly boy! You must stay! I've only just now gotten started," she sneered, her voice transitioning into one of determination and frustration, which made W feel uneasy. She got on all fours and sprang for W.L, who was a bit taken aback at the move, but recovered quickly as he dodged another swing from the bat's dagger.

"I've had enough of _this_!" W muttered in disgust, and ran forward, pulling his plasma pistol out of holster, ready for action. But Rouge had noticed him, and spun around, her foot flying against W's chest, sending him soaring backward and crashing against the desk with the tubes full of the lethal virus. Then, W felt a terrible impact. He felt himself get thrown forward, feeling a violet heat embrace his back as he fell. He could feel the back of his helmet explode, the back of his head felt as if it was on fire. When he opened his eyes, he could see a red smoke raging in front of him, blocking his eyesight.

Oh no, this is not good, W thought to himself, as he felt himself finally collapse face first onto the floor so hard, the glass visor on his helmet cracked. His mind was screaming at him to throw his helmet off, but W had a very sick feeling that the damage had already been done.**

*W.L gasped behind his helmet when he saw his brother go down, a red smoke engulfing W's helmet.

"Well, well, it looks like somebody was being a little too clumsy," Rouge taunted. Furious, W.L lashed out with his own fist this time, intending to hurt the stupid bat, very badly. Her wings sprouted out on her back, ready to take her away.

"We'll have to play another time, handsome. Looks like the damage has been done. _I_'_m _out of here," Rouge said, and before W.L could attempt to lash out at her again, she was off and out of the storage facility. Bringing his attention back to his brother, who was still sprawled out on the ground, he ran over and knelt down beside him. He thought he saw blood underneath W's waist, but as he lifted him just a bit, he realized that the glass bottle containing the virus sample had shattered on one side, spilling its contents out onto the floor.

"How are you doing, buddy?" W asked, his voice so weak and pale. W.L put his brother back onto his back, removing the shattered glass bottle. He removed W's helmet, shocked at how white his brother's face looked. It was red-rimmed and dark around his eyes.

"So this is what I get for trying to save your sorry butt," W joked. W.L chuckled, which was something that he normally did not do.

"Shut up," he replied. He was alarmed when W started to violently cough. He realized he had to get back to the ship, but how? The entire base knew they were there and could open fire on them any time. Was W getting infected exactly what the enemy wanted? Of course. A test subject to see just how powerful this virus was, but they didn't want the two of them to steal a sample either. That's where Rouge was supposed to come in. The terrible realization that the enemy had won this one washed over him like bitter, icy water. W.L looked at the desk, where tubes of the virus had spilled out everywhere. Broken glass littered the desk now, and pools of the scarlet liquid ran over the edge of the desk and dripped down to the floor. Red smoke drifted upward, filling up the room more and more.

"I could walk," W coughed, and W.L helped get him back to his feet and lead him out of the room and onto the boardwalk. All the way to the ship, no one bothered them. The base even seemed completely deserted. No one was patrolling the boardwalks, and there was no sign of Rouge. W.L was surely looking forward to the time when he would get his fingers around that bat's neck. He felt angry towards the Heroes of Today for not being able to be relied on, and now they had fallen right into a trap that could possibly cost his brother his life. One thing was for sure, that there was a spy among them in the Heroes of Today.**

*"What happened?" Chairman Neeko demanded as he pushed through the doctors that were getting to work to save their patient. The Chairman realized in shock that he was looking at the face of W on the cot. It looked so pale and drained of energy.

"There was an incident during his and W.L's stealth mission to steal a sample of the virus, sir. W here was infected by it," the lead medic explained. The Chairman looked at W.L, who was staring straight at him with his arms folded. Though he had his helmet on, the Chairman could tell that he was not happy at all.

"W.L, I'm sorry. I hope…" But a terrifying growl erupted from W.L's throat, and he stormed out of the room with his hands tightly clenched.

Not good, Neeko thought.**

*Sonic was only awake for one moment more inside the ship that he had flown in to get to Chun-Nan, where he was told about an ancient prophecy that was still yet to be fulfilled. Everybody had believed that he was the One in the prophecy, but he had turned into a Werehog for a short time, and now he was cursed to transform into a Werehog again. What had happened after that? He remembered reflecting on the fact that Knuckles was not the real spy that he was looking for. He remembered finally admitting to Amy that he had learned that there was a turncoat among the Heroes of Today, but as he was thinking about it, everything had gone suddenly black. Doubtlessly, he had been knocked out cold. By whom? Surely not Amy, surely not…

"You have Project 60?" A cold voice sneered from somewhere. Through blurry vision, Sonic could see a transmission screen with the face of someone he had seen before. Yes, Ivo Robotnik. And he was speaking to Amy. But before he was able to hear anything else, everything went black again.**

**NOTES: Now we see another side of W and W.L that I had hinted at earlier. They are brothers that care very deeply for each other and look out for each other, thus emphasized by W.L finally speaking, which is unusual for him. W getting infected was an idea that wasn't originally going to be put into the story, but I wanted to put something in that would escalate their distrust towards the Chairman.**


	10. Chapter 10: War

**The (*) symbol used once signals the start of a new scene while the (*) symbol used TWICE signals the END of a scene.**

Chapter 10

*"Amy!" Sonic shouted as his eyes opened again. This time he was not on the ship that he was riding in where he got knocked out cold. He found himself lying on sand. When he groggily sat up, he saw that he was in the middle of raw desert. Sand blew in all directions, whipping at his head tails. Ahead of him, he saw a dark-robed figure standing in the middle of the blowing sand. He noticed the figure as Amy, wearing a kimono. A robe that he had only seen her wear once before. Looking further, Sonic saw two figures slowly approaching Amy. One of them was Ivo, and the other he did not recognize.

"You've come," Amy said. Ivo took off his glasses, squinting through the winding sand.

"Fulfill your mission, Amy, and give me the hedgehog. I have someone waiting for him," Ivo commanded, his voice uncaring and cold.

"I don't think so," Amy replied, and she threw her kimono off, her pink and red armor flashing in the intense sunlight overhead. The figure standing next to Ivo stepped forward.

"Obey him, or die," he ordered. Sonic noticed Ivo shift nervously at that. His face looked…anxious.

"Commander, please, _I_'_ll _take care of this," Ivo insisted.

"You won't take Sonic. You created me Ivo, and now I will show you that I am capable on my own," Amy insisted, not budging from where she stood. Ivo clenched his hands into fists, which turned white at the knuckles.

"Amy…" But Amy cut him off.

"We're done. I don't care about your lost friend, and your plans to find all of the pieces of meteorite in order to go back to your home planet. You won't hurt Sonic," she demanded.

Ivo eyes blazed in hot anger at Amy, which even took the Commander by surprise. He removed a plasma G.U.N. from a hidden holster.

"Then, you leave me with no choice, Amy," he said, his voice almost sounding regretful and sad. It seemed to pain him when he said her name. Amy jumped up and landed between the two of them, and kicked Ivo in the gut, sending him flying into the sand. The Commander fired off a few rounds of his plasma rifle, but Amy struck it out of his grip and tripped him across the feet, then kicked him away while he was still in midair. Amy then charged toward Ivo, grabbing him by the shirt collar, hoisting him up off his feet, and throwing him as hard as she could up into the air.

The Commander got back up and began to frantically fire his rifle at the maniacal hedgehog, who had obviously gone insane. She made several flips backward, then jumped over the G.U. , spinning a kick at the Commander's head, which stung him enough for him to stagger backward. Diving underneath him, Amy kicked her feet upward against the Commander's back so hard, he crashed against Ivo who had come charging back in. Ivo jumped over the Commander, and the two of them engaged in hand-to-hand combat, the two of them raising the scale higher and higher in a desperate fight to take the other down. Sonic watched in shock as the Commander removed a pocket knife from his pocket, pressing a button which released the sharp blade up, and he charged for the two combatants. Sonic wanted to scream to get Amy's attention, but he was so weak. He couldn't move. His feet couldn't seem to work no matter how hard he tried.

Amy flipped back sending her feet flying into Ivo's face, causing him to fly backwards and land on his feet with one hand planted in the sand. The Commander ran up next to him, staring intently at Amy. But before the two of them could make another move, Amy pulled out a detonator; and pushed the button. Sand exploded up into the air in front of her, so thick that Sonic couldn't see her. Among the sand was a long hammer, an interestingly carved one so that it looked more like a mallet.

Sonic watched Amy jump, catching the hammer in the air and raising it behind her head, and launching herself down towards the Commander's feet, which jumped backward to dodge the move. Sand exploded underneath the mallet, and Amy whirled around and struck Ivo up the chin with the weapon, then twirled the mallet around and shoved the other end into his gut, propelling him backward. Amy turned around to face the Commander, before he was able to strike his knife down upon her, swinging the mallet so hard across the knife, it snapped in half. The next mallet swing crashed against the Commander's face. With both of them stunned, Amy snapped the necklace around her neck, threw it into the sand, and set off another detonator with a flick of her finger, propelling the necklace into the air among a tower of sand.

"No!" Ivo screamed, diving for the necklace and grabbing it in midair. He thrust it into his pocket and charged for Amy again, his face possessing sheer madness. Amy, looking very disappointed, threw herself at Ivo, pinning him down onto the ground and repeatedly striking him in the face. Kicking her off of him, Ivo jumped back up to his feet, and Sonic gasped when he finally noticed the Commander sneaking up behind Amy, a plasma pistol drawn. Amy was now holding her hammer in both hands, posed to get ready for anything. But she never noticed the Commander pull the trigger, and the blue bolt struck her back. She fell facedown into the sand.

"That's the end of that," the Commander sneered, walking up to her and taking the hammer, which was still in Amy's grip.

"No!" Sonic screamed. He could hear Amy's muffled groans from the sand. She was still alive, the pistol had been set to stun. Sonic tried to get up, but his feet felt so weak. Had Amy drugged him back on the ship?

"Grab the blue hedgehog," Ivo ordered the Commander. The Commander, his face littered in bruises and sand, nodded and began walking toward Sonic. He grabbed Sonic by the neck, hoisted him up, and pushed him forward. He watched Ivo hoist a stunned Amy up and lead her away. Where were they going? How long would it take to get there? Sonic wasn't sure what to think. In fact, he almost had no idea what exactly he was seeing during Amy's desperate fight with Ivo and the Commander. Had she decided to throw in the towel with Ivo, and was trying to protect him? If so, why didn't she just decide to not knock Sonic out in the ship, and just confess where her true loyalties lie?

Anger rose in Sonic's dry throat as he thought these things over. He had thought of Amy as a friend, but it turned out that she was just a pawn in Ivo's plans. He thought back to when he was briefly awake inside the ship where he heard Ivo ask Amy if she had Project 60. He had heard of Project 60 several times before, but never knew what exactly what it was. Was it possible that Ivo was talking about him? Was _he _Project 60? It bothered him very much that he couldn't remember a lot of his past. Maybe he wasn't supposed to know that he was Project 60. Maybe being approached about the Heroes was a set up to make him feel like he was a natural being. Did Ivo know about any of this?

After what felt like too long of a walk, Sonic finally saw two small ships. In the sky behind them was a large cruiser. Much to Sonic's dismay, the Commander shoved him over to one ship while Ivo shoved Amy to the other. They were being separated.

"Amy!" Sonic yelled, but Amy didn't answer, though she looked at him with pity and grief. He tried to resist getting shoved into the backseat in the Commander's ship, but the Commander was able to shove him in. The last thing he remembered was feeling a pinch in his arm, as if someone had injected a needle into it. Then he couldn't see or hear a thing.**

*When Sonic woke up, he saw that he was in a small, cramped cell. He lay on a cot without sheets, and he felt sick, as if he was too high up in the sky. He had a good idea that he was. Across from him, he saw a human sitting on a black stool. He wore dented, red armor. Most of the red looked old and discolored however.

"You're awake," he said. Sonic sat up, feeling his head, which pounded a fearsome headache into his skull. He groaned, putting his hands around his knees.

"Where am I?" He asked. The human flashed a tired smile.

"The Shunned Dealer, Ivo's new, personal cruiser. It has a better detention cell than _The_ _Tyrant_. The one where you got my warning note, I assume?" The human asked. Realization dawned on Sonic.

"Oh, you must be Mario!" He said. Mario smiled. His short, black moustache was bedraggled and askew.

"Yep, that's me, the super Mario," he replied, his voice sarcastic. Sonic couldn't believe it. He had been sent on more than one mission to save Mario, had failed all those times, and now here he was. Except he didn't think that _he_ would get captured as well.

"You got my warning?" Mario asked again. Sonic looked down at the lumpy mattress he was sitting on.

"Yeah," he replied. Mario nodded.

"When I realized that they were going to take me with them when Miles and his squad attacked the cruiser, I had to leave _something _behind, hoping that you would find it. I didn't get to finish the note before they came and got me," Mario explained.

"But why were they trying to keep you alive?" Sonic demanded, wanting answers and was hoping to finally get some.

"I think they want to use me as a test subject," Mario admitted.

"Test subject for what?" Sonic asked.**

*Ivo stood with his hands behind his back on the bridge of _The_ _Shunned Dealer_. His plan, which had been coming together so well, was falling apart just a little bit. His mistake with Amy was all too similar to his mistake with the now-deceased Shadow. They both had minds of free will. They couldn't follow orders without question so easily. They had the same train of thought as even he had. But he was going to take care of that, and, as far as he knew, there was only one way that he could strip that free mind from Amy. To turn her into a faithful servant that would not think of anyone or anything else.

"Approaching the city, sir," one of the pilots reported. Ivo nodded.

"Excellent, land just a few feet away from the city," he ordered.

"Yes, sir," the pilot replied. Ivo smiled to himself, victory was feeling so close now.**

*"Sir?" Chairman Neeko's computer SEGA-64 asked, trying to get his master's attention.

"Hmm?" The Chairman looked up from the small thing he held in his hand.

"The team is requesting to come in," the computer explained. Neeko put the little chest containing something in his pocket and cleared his throat.

"Let them in," he ordered, and the door clicked and slid open behind him. Turning around, he saw W.L, Miles Prower, Luigi, Daisy, a member that was crossed between fox and Echidna named Deem, and young Peach enter.

"You called for us, sir?" Miles asked. The Chairman nodded.

"Yes, we have a situation. Amy has activated her homing beacon. She's in trouble," he said.

"Sonic is with him?" Luigi asked.

"I could assume so, they both left for Chun-Nan to look for Mario," the Chairman guessed. He approached his desk, placing his hand on a scanner. The scanner beeped its approval, and a large hologram of a city, which looked like it was under construction, came up.

"Sonic's known location is here, where Robotnik is constructing his own empire," Neeko informed. Miles folded his small arms. He was a short fox, with a voice that sounded like a child, something that the Chairman found to be a curious thing.

"So how do you propose we break him out?" Miles asked. The Chairman stroked his beard in deep thought.

"We'll need a diversion, perhaps this rescue can also result in taking this empire for ourselves and use it as a military base," Neeko suggested, smiling to himself. Everybody in the room whistled.

"You're talking about invasion, sir," Daisy pointed out. She rarely spoke, so when she did, all eyes were on her. Her blonde hair was cut short and she wore a turquoise jumpsuit.

"I am," Neeko confessed, "but believe me, this would take us one step closer to winning this war."

"So what kind of diversion are you thinking about?" Luigi asked. Neeko changed the angle of the hologram so that they were seeing the back of a building, which seemed to be the only finished one in the city.

"According to our spies, this building is used as a laboratory. The homing beacon came here. The building has no windows, just a front door with two guards looking after the entrance, and they built the building in such a way so that we can't do any stealth work, we'll have to go face-to-face with the enemy," the Chairman admitted.

"Permission to take the _Tails _squad for an invasion?" Miles asked. The Chairman nodded.

"You have my permission, Miles, but do you have a new plane?" He asked. Miles looked down for a moment.

"I'm…working on one, but I still need more time. I'll have to borrow one from my squad," he explained. The Chairman nodded again.

"Alright, be careful, as for you guys…" He looked at the others, who stood waiting patiently.

"Are you guys up for clearing out the ground forces? Remember, we're going to _take _the city, not destroy it. I'm sure they will have ships ready to engage, but we need people to take out the ground forces. I will send some additional soldiers to help you," the Chairman said. W.L popped his knuckles, showing his usual wordless approval. Deem silently nodded, along with everyone else.

"One more thing. Deem, you're in charge of rescuing the prisoners," Neeko added.

"Yes, sir," Deem replied, straightening his shoulders in respect.

"Good luck then, you are dismissed," Neeko concluded. Everybody else stood up straight and, except W.L, said, "yes sir!"**

*"I'll be alright big guy, go have the fun without me," W joked weakly. W.L looked down at him with grief. He had hoped that by this time, W would be feeling good enough to go with him on this invasion, but unfortunately, he didn't look any better. W.L swore that if W died, he would hold the Heroes responsible, and whoever the spy in their midst was, was going to find him or herself dangling in the air by W.L's grip. W reached up and patted W.L on his shoulder, which enforced tears to spring from his eyes.

"Go on, I'll be okay," he encouraged. Then, without another word, W closed his eyes. He wasn't dead, just sleeping.**

*"Systems are functioning smoothly, Dr. Robotnik," Rachael, a technical advisor, reported from behind a control panel inside the laboratory. Ivo watched in dark glee at a trapped Sonic inside a glass dome. The dome was connected to a roboticizer, an old invention that he had found in an underground storage room, and he intended to finally use it. Behind him stood Silver, a hedgehog that had teleported himself from the distant future in an attempt to destroy Sonic, whom he believed was the cause of the trouble and chaos going on in his time.

"Excellent," Ivo said, looking at the glass dome next to Sonic, which contained Amy. Seeing her look so helpless and so sad almost made Ivo choke up. He had created Amy to be based after his human friend Amy, whom he was separated from so long ago. He was surprised at how similar the hedgehog's personality was compared to his true friend's. Next to Amy, in a third dome, was Mario. Ivo looked at the broken necklace with the piece of meteorite on the palm of his hand, which he noticed, looked damp. He shut his eyes tightly, repeating in his mind that the deed must be done.

"You will regret this, egghead," Sonic muttered. Ivo opened his eyes, a smile spreading across his face.

"Look, if you're going to give me such a ridiculous nickname, call me eggman," he joked, though he had no intention of others calling him that. He would hurt anybody who did.

"We're beginning the test _now_," he demanded, switching his gaze on Rachael.

"Yes, sir," Rachael replied, and she got to work. A humming sound protruded from the roboticizer with the tubes attached. Irritatingly, Ivo's wrist com beeped.

"Yes?" Ivo asked into it.

"Robotnik, we've got company," the Commander replied. Ivo groaned. This was _not _a good time for this.

"Ready all troops, and, get all our slaves into the emergency flight ships. We can't risk to lose them, they still have use for us," Ivo ordered. The Commander acknowledged and Ivo looked at Sonic again. He knew he had to get the prisoners roboticized quickly and rushed out of here.**

*Deem actually had second thoughts before jumping out of the cargo hold of Miles' borrowed ship. He thought of his wife Stella and his ill son Maurice. If he didn't make it out of this alive, there was no one to care for them. At the same time, he knew that this was important. For now, his family was safe. If he ditched the mission, which he was tempted to do, he would be a deserter and a coward. His reputation would be crippled from then on.

He let out a long sigh, then jumped from the back of Miles' borrowed ship. He grabbed his knees and flipped in the air, landing on the flat roof of the laboratory. G.U.N. soldiers were already firing at him, lasers whizzing around him, forcing him to duck and dodge. Pulling out a laser cutter, he fired a red laser at the roof, which burned through, forming a hole in the roof, which was his ticket in. Looking away from the forming hole, he saw W.L, Daisy, and Luigi engage with the G.U.N. soldiers, with additional military supporting them from behind. The sky was already littered with fighter ships, both belonging to Miles' squad and Commander Towers', underneath a darkening sky. Smoothing his caramel-colored fur on his head back, he turned his attention back to cutting the hole in the roof. Finally, the hole was completely formed, and the circle fell inward, allowing Deem to jump in.**

*"Robotnik, sir, there's an intruder in the building!" A G.U.N. soldier shrieked through Ivo's wrist com. Ivo growled to himself. He was getting very impatient. The Heroes had made a good move attacking his growing empire. He should've seen this coming, after all he held _three _of their fellow rebels.

"Raise the power! Get that roboticizer to hurry up! And seal the door!" Ivo ordered Rachael. He looked at the tubes attached to the glass domes, where yellow, crackling energy was beginning to grow, ready to ambush the prisoners with one violent blast. Amy looked completely hopeless. Tears streamed down her eyes and formed a puddle on the floor of the dome underneath her feet. Sonic looked at Amy with an interestingly resentful look.

Well then, at least the hedgehog will be transformed with powerful hatred; it will make him a strong ally, Ivo thought. Just then, Ivo saw something cutting around the door. The guards at the door jumped to action, backing away and aiming their G.U.N.s at the door. A laser cutter was obviously trying to get it open. Ivo was not much for combat, but at times, he had to admit, he was a good shot. Pulling out his own plasma pistol, he aimed it at the door, preparing himself for action. Next to him, Silver posed himself.

"Hurry, Rachael!" Ivo roared. The crackling energy was vibrating now, readying itself to fire off a beam upon the prisoners.

"Hold your positions…" Ivo ordered the guards, who were growing more and more restless as the cutter was finishing its job.

"On my mark…" he continued, steadying himself on one knee, his pistol aimed straight for the door now. He realized, interestingly, that his hands were trembling. He forced them still. Now was not the time to get worried. Finally, the cutter made its round, finding its way to its starting point, and the chunk of door came crashing down.

"_Now_!" Ivo cried out, and his and the soldiers' G.U.N.s opened fire at the large hole in the door. They couldn't see the intruder because of a thick wall of smoke on the other side. After a couple rounds of fire on the gap, Ivo raised his hand to stop the soldiers' constant fire. The soldiers stopped and stared intently, trying to see through the smoke. Silver stood silently behind him. The only sounds were the battle outside, and the energy in the tubes, so close to firing down on the prisoners now that Ivo could feel the intense heat. After a moment of awkward silence, Ivo got up on his feet.

"One of you go and check," Ivo ordered.

"Um, sir?" One of the soldiers asked, Ivo knowing what he was trying to get at.

"Just do as I say!" Ivo insisted. One soldier finally got up the nerve to check. But as he inched close enough, the side of an electric staff struck the soldier's chest. The man grunted and crumpled to the floor. Smoke trailed off his chest. The remaining soldiers got ready again and aimed, Ivo got on one knee with his pistol aimed again. Through the smoke stepped forward an agent that was a cross between fox and Echidna. In one hand, he held an electric staff. Red, crackling energy hummed at both sides.

"Alright, so who wants to be first?" The Hero asked.**

**NOTES: Deem was a new character to add a little more tension. There are too many characters here that we already know from pre-existing franchises. Deem was such a mystery even to me because I wasn't sure what kind of purpose he was supposed to serve (yet).**


	11. Chapter 11: Not Forgiven

**The (*) symbol used once signals the start of a new scene, the (*) symbol used TWICE signals the END of a scene.**

Chapter 11

*Ivo stared in surprise at the intruder standing in the smoking hole in the door. The fox, or Echidna, he couldn't tell which, he looked like a mixture of both, stepped through the smoldering hole in the door, both sides of his electric staff crackling with lethal energy. Without waiting for Ivo to make the call, the G.U.N. soldiers desperately fired at the agent, trying as hard as they could to bring him down. The agent continuously deflected the fire with the staff, allowing the energy bolts to fly back to its sources, downing the soldiers one by one, leaving Ivo, Silver, and Rachael the only ones left. Then, before Ivo could react, the agent threw his staff toward the control panel connected to the roboticizer. To Ivo's dismay, the staff stunk deep into the controls, and the glowing beam warming up above the prisoners faded and died out.

"Now, if I can please have the prisoners," the agent said. His voice sounded rich; amusement, humor, and pleasure strung together. It almost reminded Ivo of his days on Earth, back when he was just an average young man. Ivo laughed.

"I have back-ups, Hero, and I will keep trying until one of you is roboticized," he said. Before he could say anything else, Silver lashed out at the agent, lifting his hand so that the agent was off his feet and hovering in the air. But Ivo saw the agent's boots flare, revealing that they were rocket boots. The agent pushed himself forward against Silver's energy, and succeeded in kicking Silver in the head, sending him backwards, but he was able to land on his feet, one hand laid flat on the ground in front of him.

"This part is not my fight," Silver growled, and he lifted himself off the ground, and somehow, much to Ivo's amazement, went right through the roof without creating even a dent in it. Ivo snarled, his eyes burned in an irresistible rage. He pulled the electric staff, which the agent had thrown, out of the control panel and aimed it at him.

"You will suffer just like I suffered," he muttered, not particularly wanting the agent to hear it. But the agent didn't look interested in getting into another fight. He flipped his way over to Ivo, who was not prepared for that, and watched as the agent grabbed hold of the staff and yanked it out of his hand. Then, he ran for the glass domes that kept Sonic, Amy, and Mario imprisoned. With one swift move on each of them, he struck the staff across each dome, the front of them each shattered, allowing the prisoners to escape. Ivo watched them crawl out and stand up, looking at Ivo. But the man smiled.

"It appears I am outmatched," he suggested, and he ran for the gap in the door. Sure, it appeared to everybody that he was running away like a coward, but he had a plan.**

*"Alright, we can't get separated now. We'll need to leave the building, and prepare yourselves to go out in the heat of battle," Deem warned Sonic, Amy, and Mario.

"Yes, sir," Sonic replied. Deem smiled. Though he hadn't seen him much, he already liked this hedgehog. Amy, the pink one, didn't say anything. She looked so depressed, like she was about to burst into tears without warning. Mario silently nodded, looking at Amy as if he understood why she looked so depressed.

"Just follow me, and I could get you guys out of here," Deem ordered, without being stern. The three of them nodded, and Deem began leading them out of the room. The female technical advisor that he had seen in the room earlier had already fled while they weren't looking. Suddenly, Amy stopped and snatched something from the control panel. Deem noticed it was a snapped necklace with a chipped piece of meteorite on it. He decided to ask about that later. Right now, he and the others had to get out of there. Somehow though, Deem felt like this rescue mission was too easy. Surely Ivo had a backup plan, a plan B, something…**

*Sonic willingly followed Deem. All of them had broken into running, wanting to get out as quickly as possible. The hallways were so twisted. They were constantly changing directions, going left, then right, then another right, then another left…

The building looked abandoned, which Sonic supposed was understandable, because Ivo would need all the men he could use in order to go up against the Heroes. As he ran, he tried keeping an adequate distance from Amy. He was _not _finished with her. He still had a growing anger and bitterness towards her. Would if she betrayed them again? Would if leaving with them was still part of a setup and that she would attempt to abduct him again? Sonic didn't want to think about that. He continued running behind everybody else, just as intent to get out as they were. But just then, Sonic felt his feet slow, and then finally come to an uncontrollable halt. He couldn't move no matter how hard he tried. He tried to cry out, get Deem's attention somehow, but it was as if someone had clamped its hand over his mouth. He couldn't make a sound. Then he felt himself get dragged backwards by an invisible force, and then finally flung back. He watched as he realized that he had landed in a separate room, and the door automatically slid shut and locked itself in front of him.

"The Iblis trigger." A voice said behind him.**

*Deem led the others to the hole he had created in the roof a while ago, and raised a hand to get the escapees to stop where they were.

"I'll go first to check to see if it's all clear up there," he said, and he jumped, and sure enough, there were a few soldiers waiting for him. They immediately opened fire, but Deem was already in the air, aiming a kick in the head to one of the soldiers, and then pulling out his plasma rifle, firing off a few rounds at the rest of the G.U.N. soldiers. He then bent down and signaled to Mario and Amy to come. Mario and Amy? Where was Sonic?

"Where's Sonic?" Deem asked. Mario and Amy looked at each other confused, looking around, realizing that he was indeed gone.

"I'll go look for him," Mario volunteered, but Deem shook his head.

"You'll need to go find Luigi, _I_'_ll _go look for him," he said, then, without another word, he jumped back through the hole and back into the building in the cramped hallway.

"Good luck out there," Deem encouraged, then he began his journey through the hall.**

*Sonic felt himself get lifted off his feet and thrown against the wall in the cramped closet. The silver hedgehog approached him and held him up by the neck this time.

"I belong to the distant future, in a war-torn, broken world because of _you_, the Ilbris Trigger, and now I will destroy you to change the future," the hedgehog said in a quiet, predator tone. Sonic tried hard to get out of the hedgehog's grip, but it was so tight, he could feel his throat screaming for oxygen. Sonic felt like he could've suffocated completely if Silver hadn't cast him aside again. Sonic felt his head crash against the wall again, pain throbbed where his head was hit.

"Ilbris Trigger, huh? Really?" Sonic asked, saying it as if it was a joke. Silver roared in anger, and was about to pounce on him again, but then stopped when he heard the sound of a laser cutter on the sealed door. He had destroyed the controls to get the door open when he had gotten Sonic, but now someone was cutting through.

"Enjoy your tormenting while it lasts, my friends are going to break me out of here," Sonic said wearily, forming a weak, twitching smile on his face. Silver laughed a steady laugh.

"Indeed I should, but I think I'll switch everything around so that I take care of your friends first," he replied, facing the door now.**

*Deem furiously sliced away at the door, knowing for sure that he had heard noises coming from this room. He tried harder to get the laser cutter to go faster, pushing harder and harder. Just then, when he was so close, he felt something jab into his back, and a fresh, violent burst of electric energy exploded through his body, forcing him to drop the cutter and crash onto his knees, and then finally onto his face on the floor.

"All too easy," he heard Ivo say behind him.**

*Sonic was shocked when he saw the cutter stop working, and he thought he could hear cries of pain behind the closed door. He looked at Silver who only shrugged, then turn his attention back to him.

"Uh oh, not good," Sonic muttered. Silver smiled.

"Now, I will finish you," he replied. Fighting against the pain throbbing through his bruised and beaten body, Sonic staggered to his feet and, calling upon all of his speed, he propelled himself against Silver, throwing him backward so hard that when he crashed against the wall, it cracked around him. Snarling fiercely, Silver got off the wall and raised his hand to grab hold of Sonic again, but he jumped and spun, forming himself into a small, blue funnel and spiraled his way toward Silver, lifting him off the ground and sending him crashing against a pile of crates, which fell over and collapsed around him.

"You tell your family back in the future that I will have no part in this," Sonic demanded, without any humor in his voice. He watched Silver stagger up in a rage, and, before he could react, Silver raised his hand so quickly, sending Sonic crashing against the half-cut door, which exploded behind him on impact, and Sonic fell and skidded across the floor outside the storage room. Quickly without delay, Sonic got back up onto his feet and braced himself for Silver to come out across from him. His focus was completely on the storage room now. Finally, Silver propelled himself out of the room and was ready to engage Sonic.

Come on, come on! Sonic thought to himself, tensing for impact. In the few minutes that Sonic had known Silver, Sonic had already realized that this hedgehog was being the aggressive hero. He was doing what he believed was right in order to save his family and the world, even if it meant killing someone who wasn't really the bad guy. And yet, Sonic felt that if this was what the Heroes was aiming for, maybe the G.U.N. forces would be overthrown quicker. Unsure of what to do, Sonic lashed his hand out, and it clamped around Silver's head, allowing him to hurl the hedgehog flat onto the ground.

"You may have skills beyond mine, but I have the speed," Sonic mocked, and he struck Silver across the head so hard he was knocked out cold.**

*"General Miles, we've got a fleeing cruiser, it's Robotnik's sir," a pilot's voice reported through Miles' speaker. The fox narrowed his eyes. He could see the large cruiser fleeing so quickly.

"Permission to pursue it, sir?" The pilot asked. Miles shook his head.

"No, let it go, it's going too fast, and we need to fortify the city," he said. He spun his ship around as he dodged a barrage of enemy fire from G.U.N. ships. Keeping his hand gripped on the joystick, he pressed his finger down on the red button, sending his own barrage of fire at an oncoming enemy ship. The fire crashed against the ship, and the ship exploded, fire and debris scattered in all directions.

"Yes!" Miles shouted out loud. Then, he felt his ship violently jolt from the impact of enemy fire that had clipped the left wing.

"Uh oh, not good," he complained looking back. He tried to keep control of the ship, but it continued to plummet toward the ground. Debris from the back of his ship burned off and flew backward. Just then, a blue hedgehog landed on the window, signaling to him to lift the roof of the cockpit.

"You're no help!" Miles shouted at him.

"Come on, open the cockpit!" Sonic shouted at him.

"Watch me!" Then, Miles opened the cockpit, jumped out, and allowed his double tails to fly him towards the ground. He could hear the wind flying by and the ship fire clearly now. Miles took one last look at the ground, which was coming, closer and closer to meet him now. Now, he had admitted to himself that he was not exactly a very brave guy. Even though he knew it was all probably going to be okay, Miles tightly shut his eyes for impact.**

*W.L bashed his helmeted head against the head of another G.U.N. soldier. He let go of the man who crumpled to the ground. Looking up, he saw a burning ship under the intense glare of the moon, coming straight towards him. Shocked, he jumped aside, just in time when the ship exploded into the ground, skidding across the city. Unfinished buildings collapsed and crashed upon the ground. W.L rolled out of the way of an incoming roof falling toward the street right beside him. Soldiers from both sides scattered and ran. Most of the G.U.N. soldiers were retreating now, getting into ships to flee, but some of them were ambushed by Hero soldiers and destroyed. Feelings of victory swelled up within W.L. He was still nervous about his sick brother back on the _Trident_, something he was going to get back to as soon as the fight ended, but he was happy that they were finally gaining a successful victory.

Around him, W.L saw the Heroes solders beginning to cheer as they watched the G.U.N. soldiers clear out of the city, desperately fleeing from the Heroes of Today. Smiling to himself, W.L walked back to find Miles, Mario, and the others, ready to show off. Walking in between two buildings to take a shortcut, he was attacked by an unseen foe. He felt his head slam against the wall of one of the buildings so hard that the back of his helmet made a sickening cracking sound. He looked straight at his attacker. It was Koopa. He felt a fist crash into his gut two times, knocking the breath right out of him.

"Tell me _everything_," Koopa snarled. W.L looked up at him, confused and weak.

"Everything you know about Project 60, tell me everything!" Koopa demanded, a plasma pistol shoved in W.L's forehead.**

*The Heroes of Today had succeeded in taking Ivo-Land, Robotnik's empire, but Sonic the hedgehog was still not satisfied. He sat on the edge of a ship back in the hangar of the _Trident_, watching the Chairman receive reports from several soldiers about the battle there. Mario and Luigi were back together and happy. But Sonic was growing more and more nervous. He had heard that Deem was assumed to have been taken prisoner by Ivo himself, which he supposed explained why Deem had stopped trying to cut through the door that had separated Sonic with Silver. One prisoner was rescued, but Ivo was able to quickly take another. Sonic was beginning to really hate that man.

Across from Sonic, sitting on the edge of another ship, was Amy, who was trying to keep her gaze focused on everyone else but him. She wore the necklace with the piece of rock around her neck again, which had somehow come together again. Sonic would think that Amy owed him a very sincere apology. Finally, he saw the Chairman motion to him and Amy to come to him. Sighing, Sonic got up and walked over to him. Amy followed suit. The Chairman smoothed his hair back, sighing.

"Looks like you two have been on quite an adventure," he said. Sonic nodded.

"It's a long story," he replied. The Chairman nodded.

"Perhaps in a brief way, you could tell me what happened," he said. There was no light in his eyes. He wanted to know exactly what happened. Sonic wanted to tell him everything, but something kept bothering him that made him not want to tell him about the prophecy business. He just didn't feel ready to share that. It was possible that all the Chairman would do is laugh it off as a mere myth or fairy tale. Nevertheless, he decided to keep that part to himself for now.

"Back when me and Amy were on that mission try to rescue Mario from Ivo's cruiser, I found a note left by him when he was taken away. It said that there was a traitor in our midst. I wanted to keep that a secret, maybe tell you while no one was around, but I didn't want to tell just anybody, because I didn't want everybody to quarrel with each other about it, or even take drastic measures. When we went to Chun-Nan, Knuckles attacked us to get to the sword Caliburn that they had there, but I chased him away and when we couldn't find Mario, we left, and Amy revealed herself to be the spy…" Sonic stopped and looked at Amy, who shrunk back, wrapping her dark robe close to herself in shame. The Chairman only nodded.

"Go on," he encouraged. Sonic took a deep breath.

"Then Amy knocked me out cold and took me to Ivo, but attacked him. Ivo overcame her and took both her and me aboard his cruiser and then to Ivo-Land, where he was going to roboticize us," Sonic finished.

"Roboticize?" The Chairman gasped aloud, but he stopped himself and pulled a look as if he hated himself for saying that, as if Sonic wasn't supposed to hear him say that.

"What are you going to do with Amy?" Sonic asked. The Chairman looked at Amy with such overwhelming pity it made her blush.

"Welcome to the team, Amy," he said, patting her on the shoulder. Sonic gasped, shooting another look at Amy, who was choked up in tears. Tears streamed down her pale cheeks and stained her robe. Sonic wasn't sure if he was really controlling himself when one of his hands clenched into a fist.

"Sir, what…" But the Chairman kept a gentle grip on her shoulder.

"Amy, I said, welcome to the team," he insisted. Sonic finally found his voice.

"She was artificially created by Ivo, like Shadow!" He pointed out.

"Exactly, she was programmed for it, but I could see a change of heart in her, you wish to start over don't you?" The Chairman asked. Amy looked up at him, her body shook from head to toe.

"Yes, yes, I do, sir," Amy admitted. The Chairman put a hand through Amy's hair.

"Then welcome to the team, Amy," he said more gently than Sonic had ever heard from him. He took the necklace off of Amy.

"This will no longer be your burden Amy, it will be mine," he said, moving to put the necklace in his pocket, but he strangely stopped himself, and slowly put it in his right pocket instead. Without waiting to see what would happen next, Sonic stormed off, both his hands clenching into fists. He couldn't understand it. Amy had betrayed them all, had caused so much damage within. In fact, wasn't it because of her that W was lying in bed now fighting a virus? And yet, the Chairman had chosen to do nothing with her except invite her to stay as if she had done nothing wrong. As Sonic walked away, he strode past W.L, who had his arms folded, and was looking at Amy and the Chairman. There was something about him that scared Sonic. He was always so quiet, and his personality was rough and edgy.**

*W.L was probably just as surprised as Sonic was when the Chairman welcomed Amy back without lashing out at her or punishing her in any way, or even sending her away because of her dealings with Ivo. This had to possibly be the last straw for him. Amy was undoubtedly the reason why W had gotten infected in the first place, and yet, Amy was freed from that punishment. If he had been allowed to, W.L would've gladly given out Amy's punishment without a second's hesitation. He had to tell W about this right away. Perhaps now, was the time to show the Heroes of Today how exactly they felt about this.**

*"Sonic, hey, Sonic!" Amy yelled behind Sonic, the girl tried to catch up with him, but Sonic was trying to walk as fast as he could away from her. He whirled around, his fists clenching even tighter, and he glared at her.

"You betrayed me! And yet, the Chairman is letting you go free?" Sonic yelled. Amy stopped in her tracks, surprised and taken aback.

"I…Sonic, I'm…" But Sonic cut her off.

"You've been lying to me all this time! I was your friend, your ally, and you still struck out at me!" Sonic shouted, his voice was raised so high now, the others around the two of them were beginning to notice.

"You kept secrets from _me _Sonic," Amy pouted, her voice sounding trapped and defensive. Sonic shook his head. The way he saw it, this was about Amy, not him.

"I had good reasons for keeping secrets from you Amy, especially the fact that you were the answer to that secret," Sonic pointed out, and he stormed off, not wanting to say another word to her. For now, he was done with her.

Inside Sonic's private quarters, a red light blinked on his computer, indicating an incoming transmission. Curious and confused, Sonic walked over and pressed the button that put the call through, and the screen lit up with the taunting face of Ivo Robotnik. Immediately, Sonic glared at the image.

"What do you want, _eggman_," Sonic demanded. Ivo grimaced from Sonic calling him by that nickname.

"You better tell the Chairman that he might as well flee. We will attack your new base at my empire and take it back, count on it!" Ivo sneered. Sonic could only stare at Ivo's mocking image in angry silence.

"Tell the Chairman to surrender now, or, like your abducted friend, you will all be roboticized!" Ivo continued. Sonic gasped. Deem, roboticized? Hot with rage, Sonic slammed the button on the computer, which cut the transmission off. Now, this was war.**

*Ivo stared at the blank image that, just a few seconds before, had an angry Sonic on it. It was working. Anything that he could do to provoke the hedgehog to anger would bring him closer to victory, and maybe perhaps, Sonic would end up battling himself and eventually destroy himself. He looked at Koopa, who stood by him. He truthfully gave Ivo the creeps. The horns on Koopa's head and his reptilian-like eyes revealed what appeared to have been an accident that Ivo had never asked about. But now, Koopa was ready to help him accomplish a large part of his plan.

"Did our friend W.L give you enough information about Project 60?" Ivo asked. Koopa nodded.

"As much as he knows, but it's enough that I need in order to accomplish our goal," he explained.

"Excellent, then your part will come very soon," Ivo said.**

**NOTES: Uh oh, things have finally gotten to a boiling point now!**


	12. Chapter 12: Chaos Emeralds

**The (*) symbol used once means the start of a new scene while the (*) symbol used TWICE in a row means the END of a scene.**

Chapter 12

*Shadow sat cross-legged on a stool at a bar near Westopolis, which, except for a few buildings, was in ruins. Nobody had dared approach the city ever since a large battle there between the Heroes of Today and the G.U.N. forces happened, where both sides failed in to achieve both their goals. Some have said that it was their own faults; some have said that it was because the city was cursed because of a hidden power buried there, which led down to superstition. Keeping his hood over his head with his eyes shadowed, making himself look as tough as he could, he raised a glass, which contained a sparkling blue liquid. He had sipped two so far, and he wasn't planning on stopping any time soon.

Through the double doors stepped in two men, which Shadow guessed were mercenaries or bounty hunters. One was short and thin, while the other was heavy and armored from head to toe. The armor was black and red; a tall helmet with a red T-visor hid the hunter's face. The thin one wore a dark robe, but the plasma G.U.N.s clipped to his belt and his sunglasses showed off his status as a mercenary. They both took a seat across from Shadow at the counter. The thin one threw several coins onto the counter, and signaled for a drink. The bartender walked over and scooped up the coins.

Shadow ignored them for a bit, thinking intently in his mind. Shadow, why did that name haunt him? He could only remember that name, and that image of someone named Maria, someone who had saved him from G.U.N. soldiers.

"Who is this Maria?" Shadow asked aloud. But before he could think any further, a conversation started up between the hunters and the bartender.

"Ah, Niloc and Tyr, the usual?" The bartender asked, wiping a glass with a rag. Niloc nodded.

"You've got it," the bartender said, and began filling two glasses with the same sparkling liquid that Shadow had.

"So, what's new?" He asked as he worked.

"The G.U.N. forces are offering a fortune to whoever is able to catch a hedgehog named Shadow and bring him to them alive," Tyr explained. Shadow froze where he was. He wasn't surprised that the G.U.N. forces were hunting him down, he had seen pictures of him in the news, but now he was just across from two mercenaries who were looking for him to get their promised fortune. From the corner of his eye, he could see the bartender gasp in surprise at this, obviously remembering that Shadow was right there in his own bar. Slowly, Shadow pulled the hood from his robe lower down his face and stealthily got up from his stool, walking slowly away from the mercenaries.

"Hey, you!" Shadow heard Tyr bark. Stopping in his tracks, he stayed where he was as the two hunters walked over to him. He felt Niloc grip his shoulder while Tyr looked him right in the eye.

"You're Shadow, can't tell ya' how much the G.U.N. forces are willing to pay us for your capture," Tyr said. Shadow shook his head, throwing his hood back from over his head.

"I don't think the G.U.N. forces prepared you enough for this…" And with that, Shadow spun around and struck Tyr across the chest, the violent impact sent the husky hunter flying backwards and over the counter, near the frightened bartender. The few thugs that sat in the bar, stood up in surprise, then clapped their hands in approval.

"The G.U.N. forces have no hold on me," Shadow announced removing his black robe. Niloc removed a plasma pistol from his belt and soundlessly aimed it at him. But when he fired, it shot a cable at Shadow, and spiraled itself around his wrist. Niloc pulled the trigger again which pulled the cable back toward him, dragging Shadow by the wrist with it. Once Shadow was dragged right in front of Niloc, the mercenary struck Shadow repeatedly across the face. Shadow felt the terrible blows on his face. Pain exploded across his head. For a moment, he felt so weak, as if the blows were weakening him more each time he was struck. Then, gathering as much strength as he could, he yanked his hand so hard, the cable around his wrist snapped and eventually freed him. Then, he charged himself against Niloc, sending him crashing against the wall behind the counter. Before either of the hunters could do anything else, Shadow fled the bar, using incredible speed which he had been learning to use for what had possibly been a week since his escape from the ship colony he had found himself on. One day, maybe he would visit that ship again to get a better idea of what happened there.

Fleeing into the woods close by, he looked behind him, seeing through the front glass doors of the bar, the mercenaries were up and looking around, demanding everybody to know where he went. Shadow shook his head in disgust.

"Look how pathetic they are, I don't have time for these humans," he remarked, and he turned his back on the bar and escaped deeper into the woods. He didn't use his unbelievable speed, but instead jogged through the trees. The air felt thick and warm, it was a darkening evening now, and the sun was almost out of sight now, sinking away to let the night in. Finally, Shadow stopped and leaned one hand against a tree, breathing heavily, not from running, but still recovering from getting struck in the face and getting in a fight with those mercenary scum. Then, he gathered the strength to continue walking.

He didn't walk much further when, suddenly, everything seemed to be changing. Red fog began to shroud the woods around him. He eventually couldn't see the trees, and when he looked up, the sky couldn't be seen. All he could see was complete red.

"Shadow," a deep, ominous voice boomed. It was as if three people were saying the same thing at the same time. Finally, a large, ghost-like being materialized in front of him. It had a flat head with three eyes, two normal eyes, and one big one on his forehead. It didn't seem to have a mouth, and he wore a large, red medallion around his neck, which hung far down his large robes. It didn't seem to have legs. It floated like a ghost, was transparent like a ghost.

"The day of reckoning will soon be here, find the seven Chaos Emeralds, and bring them to me, as promised," the ghost boomed.

"Who are you? How do you know I'm Shadow? And what are you talking about?" Shadow demanded. But the ghost faded away, and the red fog retreated, revealing the normal woods around him again. Shadow stood where he was for quite a while, pondering this. He didn't know who this ghost was. How _did _he know he was Shadow? What were the Chaos Emeralds anyway? Yet somehow, he felt like he had heard of the Chaos Emeralds before. An old memory, like it wasn't his own, but, someone else's.

"Just what was _that _all about? And how did he know who I am?" Shadow asked himself. He began to feel less confused and more pleased, as if he had successfully achieved a long-anticipated goal. A smile spread across his face.

"Like it or not, I have to believe him, the only way to discover the secrets to my past, is to get those Chaos Emeralds," Shadow realized aloud, and, without a moment's hesitation, he bolted off toward the end of the woods. Somehow, he felt like a new memory was coming to him. It was about Westopolis. It was as if he knew exactly where to find the first few Emeralds, and that was the ruins of Westopolis.**

*Knuckles watched in unspeakable shock at what he just saw. He had been able to track down Shadow after two days of searching. It wasn't really that hard to do. He had decided that the best way to do it was to get near Westopolis, the last place he had seen him. He had watched him enter the bar, then fight with two mercenaries, then escape into the woods. Now he watched Shadow talk to himself after having an encounter with a strange specter. He had heard the ghost loud and clear. He wanted Shadow to find the seven Chaos Emeralds, which was something that Knuckles had heard so many times, and had been discussed to the death about it with his people at Angel Island. Angel Island was where the Master Emerald was, and it was their source of protection from enemies. But these were separate Emeralds, each containing its own unique power.

Knuckles forced his attention back to Shadow, who had seemed to make up his mind about something, then bolted through the woods, obviously deciding to leave as soon as possible.

"Isn't he wonderful?" A voice said behind Knuckles. Knuckles whirled around to see the man behind him. The stranger had a long, graying beard and a dark blood-red hood over his head, which belonged to a dark red robe. But he wore a medallion around his neck that had a purple glow.

"Who are you? Speak!" Knuckles demanded, tensing for action. The old man waved a hand in dismissal of his recklessness.

"Isn't he wonderful?" The man asked again as if nothing had happened.

"Who? Shadow?" Knuckles asked, deciding to play along. The man shook his head.

"No, I do not mean him, although he will do great things in the future, and he will need my help, he will eventually come to me; but no, I meant Black Doom," he replied. As he spoke, his voice sounded so rich with authority, as if he was a great speaker. Knuckles looked back at where Shadow had stood just a few minutes ago.

"The ghost?" Knuckles asked. The man nodded.

"He is exactly what I intended him to be," he said. Knuckles looked down at the ground, trying to comprehend this. But when he looked up to face the old man again, he was gone. Looking around, he couldn't see him. Somehow, he had vanished. Deciding not to think about this for now, he ran through the woods to follow Shadow.**

*Shadow walked through the ruins of Westopolis. No one was there. According to the news and the men hanging out at bars, it had been considered a ghost town. Fires still raged and danced across the ashes of what had once been a great city. Debris lay scattered everywhere, all as black as the ashes. His mind felt like a detector, it seemed to know exactly where Shadow was supposed to go to find the Emeralds. The persistence to find out who he is and who Maria is, spurred him forward, refusing to stop. Finally his eyes locked onto a tall, crooked building. Several chunks of wall had crumbled off, but it was still stable. He walked in, deciding it was a hotel from the looks of it. Inside, there was a desk, and a couple chairs and couches, but they were either flipped over or in the wrong place because of the battles there. It was completely dark, so he kept the double doors open to be able to see.

Though, it seemed his vision was more advanced than humans, because it was almost as if the lights were on inside. Shadow could clearly see his way through the lobby. As if by instinct, he felt like what he was looking for was underneath the desk, which was moveable, as if it was just placed there just in the right spot. Putting his hands against the side of the counter, he pushed, straining against the weight. After a moment of struggling, he finally felt the counter move forward from his pushing. Keeping himself from stopping to rest, he continued pushing, harder and harder now. Finally, where the counter used to stand, was a wooden trapdoor, with a metal handle on one side. Sliding his gloved hand underneath the handle, he pulled the door open with one swift upward movement of his hand. Inside, it was pitch black, but he knew that this was a secret tunnel. Why Westopolis had the tunnel was beyond his understanding, but now it didn't matter. He jumped into the thick darkness of the tunnel.**

*Knuckles ran through the double doors of the hotel, and saw through the darkness, an open trapdoor in the floor across the lobby. Narrowing his eyes, Knuckles walked over to the door, intent on finally confronting Shadow and stopping him from taking the Chaos Emeralds. No more following his every move, if he kept this up, he wouldn't be able to keep Shadow from doing whatever he was planning. He jumped into the darkness inside the trapdoor without another second's hesitation, ready for anything.**

*Knuckles slowly and stealthily walked along the dark, murky, damp tunnel. The only noise he could hear was water dripping and hitting the rocky ground around him. It felt so long walking through the tunnel, but then, finally, he saw Shadow, staring at a dead end. He could see Shadow's frustration, and for a moment, he was afraid that he would turn back. But something on the dead end rock wall caught the hedgehog's attention.**

*Shadow stared at the rock wall in front of him intently, trying to make out the writing that was imbedded in the rock. The writing was almost sloppy, so it was hard to make it all out, but then Shadow had an idea. Putting a finger on the dusty, rock wall, he drew a C on a small, empty space below the words. For a quick second, the space glowed a cyan color, which made Shadow pull his finger back away, but the cyan glow faded away. Taking a deep breath, Shadow silently put his finger back onto the space next to the C, and slowly drew an H. The cyan glow came back, brighter this time, but Shadow didn't hesitate this time. He drew an A, the glow began to pick up strength now, almost blinding his eyes. Quickly now, he drew an O, sweat dripped down his forehead now and fell and splashed onto the ground below him. He was so close, but was he doing it right? The answer to finding this Emerald seemed too easy, surely it had to be harder than _this_.

Putting his mind back on the challenge, he spelled a large S next to the O, spelling the word CHAOS. The cyan glow unleashed one more violent assault, which blinded Shadow's eyes and caused him to fall over backwards. The ground shook, rocks collapsed around him. For a moment, Shadow was afraid that the whole tunnel would come down on him, but mercifully, the trembling stopped, and he was able to stand again. What he saw in front of him shocked him.

The rocky space where he had spelled Chaos had split apart, revealing a cyan-colored Emerald, which shined in the hedgehog's eyes. Shadow walked over to it, his hand reaching out without control. It was so beautiful, so…

"Shadow," a voice said behind him. Shadow whirled around to face the intruder. It was a red Echidna, not the first time he had seen one, although he had a funny feeling that he had seen this same one before.

"I have been following you for some time now, looks like you've found a precious jewel," the Echidna mocked, his annoying smile showed off all his teeth, and his legs were in a pose as if they were ready for a fight. Shadow grinned.

"I have no interest in you," he remarked, and he turned around and, with both hands, he picked up the Chaos Emerald. One down, six more to go. One step closer to discovering the secrets to his past. He wondered if the Emeralds and his past were somehow connected. Only one way to find out. He looked down at the jewel. It felt so cool in his hands as if a cold breeze was radiating from it. He looked at the Echidna, who looked like he was ready to pounce. Somehow, it was as if Shadow knew exactly what he had to say like it was on instinct.

"Chaos control," he muttered, and the Emerald's light exploded into a blinding, white flash. For a moment, nothing seemed to change. Shadow couldn't see anything. He felt like he was somewhere else now. Everything felt cool now instead of the warm dampness of the tunnel. Finally, the lights went out, and he saw that he was in an entirely different part of Westopolis, pretty far away from the hotel. Here, no buildings remained standing. Piles of rubble and ashes lined up the sides of the cracked, broken pavement. Somehow, his mind seemed to know exactly where the next Emerald was. At this point, he knew there was no stopping himself. He was a predator for these Chaos Emeralds. His mouth salivated at the thought of finding out who he is and where he came from. Running toward one particular pile of rubble that used to be a small building, he knelt down in the black ash, and began to furiously dig. Ash flew everywhere as he used his hands to dig through. Sweat streamed down his face. The evening had beG.U.N. to drift off now into the darkness of complete night.

By the time he was finished, Shadow wasn't sure how much time had passed. A couple minutes? A few hours? The sun was no longer to be seen now. A fierce glow radiated from the moon above him and shined down upon him. The night had a cold breeze, which made the hedgehog shiver a little every now and then. To his surprise, he saw the tip of a shovel protruding from the dirt of the ground. Smiling fiercely, which was something he rarely did, he used both hands to grab the tip of the handle and pull. The cyan Emerald seemed to glow beside him and it seemed to be helping him. With one more pull, Shadow was able to get the shovel out of the ground. Dirt shot up into the air as the shovel left the ground. To his surprise, purple mist circled around the shovel, and when he stabbed the shovel back into the ground, it easily sunk in as if the dirt was wet and damp. Shadow pulled up, scooping up the dirt.

This time, Shadow had no idea how much time had passed. The night didn't seem to change, and there was no sign of that Echidna. He still kept himself on guard, constantly glancing at the Emerald beside him. Finally, when he was beginning to get deep into the ground, he grabbed the cyan Emerald and continued digging, until finally, he saw what looked like a lock. It was interesting one, because it didn't look like it was a lock for a key. Then, he looked at the bottom tip of the cyan Emerald and realized what it was. Injecting the bottom of the Emerald into the lock, which fit perfectly, he pushed it in far, until the earth below him trembled. The spot of ground that had the lock began to split apart. Shadow quickly pulled the Emerald out of the lock and watched as the ground where the lock was separated to reveal the top of a red Emerald. Overjoyed, but not smiling, he took both hands and pulled the red Emerald out of the ground. What kind of a city wouldn't dig the Emerald deep enough? He seemed to notice faint trails of purple mist drifting up from the earth below him. Shadow shrugged. Maybe it had something to do with that.**

*Knuckles watched from a pile of debris as Shadow climbed out of the hole he had dug up. In both hands, he held an Emerald. One of them was the cyan one that he had found in the tunnel, but in the other, was a red Emerald, obviously he had just now found that one. Then, like last time, before Knuckles could run out to catch him, he heard the hedgehog mutter something, and then vanish again in a blinding flash of light. Knuckles scraped his fingers across the blackened rubble in front of him in frustration. This couldn't keep going. He was tired of finding Shadow, only to have him slip through his fingers each time. If he kept this up, Shadow would find all seven Emeralds before he would make a move to stop him. Though it was hard to admit it, because he was one to do things by himself, he needed to find the Heroes and tell them about this. They were, of course, aware of Shadow on the loose, but they hadn't considered him a big enough threat to go after him right away. Turning around, he sighed at the thought of having to travel all the way back to the _Trident_, which wasn't always at the same place in the sky.

Like it or not, Knuckles knew that now was not the time to stall. Shadow could become a big threat to the Heroes _and _the G.U.N. forces if he isn't stopped. Deciding to cast aside his foolish desires for now, Knuckles ran, knowing that the first thing he had to do was to get out of this ghost town.**

*"I have my own purposes for collecting these," Shadow snapped to the same ghost that had encountered him earlier. In his hands, he held the two precious Emeralds.

"You really don't know the situation here, do you?" The ghost boomed, his voice so low and menacing that it sent sharp shivers down Shadow's back. But he continued to walk past the ghost as if he wasn't there.

"It appears the professor erased more of your memory than I had anticipated," the ghost thought aloud behind him. This made Shadow stop in his tracks, and he turned around.

"The professor?" Shadow asked. The ghost made a noise that seemed to come from everywhere.

"Strange that you don't even remember your own maker," he said.

"What did you say?" Shadow demanded. But the ghost made such a terrible motion with his hand, that it almost made him crash to his knees and drop the Emeralds.

"_Silence_! The ramification of your disobedience will be severe! I will no longer guide you to the rest of the Chaos Emeralds. It will be up to you to find the rest of them. I can wait," he shouted. To the hedgehog's horror, the ghost began to fade away. Terrified, Shadow dropped the two Emeralds and ran toward the ghost.

"No! Wait!" He screamed, but the ghost was completely gone by the time he got to him. Shadow fell to his knees and put his face in his hands, realizing that, for now, he was all alone, with no guidance to find what he was looking for. He had been so successful to find the first few Emeralds, but there were five more left, and he had no idea where to look first. Where would he go? How will he find the rest of the Emeralds?

Getting up, he picked up the two Emeralds, and looked around the foggy night in Westopolis. Though he hadn't really felt like this when he was retrieving the Emeralds, now he felt scared being here. An intense anger sparked within him, and flared. He threw the Emeralds to the ground, which didn't break when they hit the ground, and he screamed at the night, his eyes wild with hate. When he was finished, a tear trickled down his cheek, and it fell and stained his yellow shoe.

"I will find the rest of the Chaos Emeralds, I'll show you," Shadow muttered, meaning for the ghost to hear it, although he wasn't sure if it was listening to him.**


	13. Chapter 13: The Past Whispers

**The (*) symbol used once means the start of a new scene while the (*) symbol used twice signals the END of a scene.**

Chapter 13

*Sonic looked in the cell where Silver the hedgehog was being held. Tears were streaming down Silver's face as he looked down at the floor, sitting on the bare bench against the wall.

"You really think I spread chaos in your time zone?" Sonic said. Silver glared up at him with a terrible scowl.

"I _saw _you," he shouted. Sonic put his hand against one of the bars of the cell.

"I don't know what to say," he replied. Silver shivered again, and he looked up at the ceiling above him.

"As the good guy, the one who tries to keep the peace, haven't you ever thought that sometimes, in order to win the battle, you have to do things that are a little…questionable, in order to achieve your goals to set things right?" Silver asked. Sonic looked again at Silver, surprised at what he heard. Yes, he had to admit, he had felt compelled to do things that were a little out of the ordinary in order to make things right again.

"Think about that," Silver remarked, crossing his legs on the bench and, putting his head against the wall, he closed his eyes. Sonic couldn't tell if he was sleeping, or if he was meditating.

"My name is _Sonic_ by the way, I don't like the name Iblis trigger," Sonic said. Silver didn't open his eyes, but he spoke.

"As you wish."**

*Sonic sat on his bed inside his private quarters on the _Trident_, still grieved about the loss of Deem, but something else was bothering him now too. Something that seemed to come straight from his forgotten past. It was a name, though it didn't really seem to mean anything to him at the moment, it still bothered him and plagued his mind. The name kept repeating itself in his thoughts, and, even though Sonic was wondering what his past was, he tried to shove the name aside. There was too much going on to think about it, but still, the name continued to repeat itself in his mind.

_Sally_.**

*Ivo Robotnik was staring at his electronic journal as he slowly walked down another corridor aboard _The Shunned Dealer_. He rarely ever got the time to add a new entry, but when he got to, it was mostly the same thing every time, and it made him weary. He wished he had something new to write. When the Heroes finally get wiped out and Sonic eliminated, _then _he would have something to write about. When he had all the pieces of the meteorite put together and he gets back to earth to get Amy, _then _he would have something to write about. The G.U.N. forces were doing an excellent job finding these pieces, which had been scattered across Mobius. This had been a job that the G.U.N. forces had been pursuing for him for a couple years now. But he would need Amy, the hedgehog, to get the last piece. He now regretted giving that piece of meteorite to Amy.

His mind still juggling many thoughts, he finally made it to the sliding door that belonged to his personal lab where three fresh roboticizers stood. Still holding his electronic journal in one hand, he used his other hand to be scanned on the security system next to the door. After the system clicked in approval, the door slid open, revealing Sonic the hedgehog sitting behind the control panel at the center of the room.

"Well hello there," he remarked, a terrible smile on his face. Ivo gasped, and almost dropped his electronic journal.

"What? What are _you _doing here?" He demanded, reaching for the plasma pistol clipped to his belt. Sonic shook his head, and rubbed his fingers together.

"Vengeance," he said. Then, before Ivo could react, a glass dome dropped over him. He gasped as he looked up to see that tubes were hooked to the top, and those tubes were connected to a roboticizer machine.

"Smooth move abducting Deem, your plan to provoke me worked, and now, you've reaped what you've sowed," Sonic said, although, it didn't seem to sound like him at all. Ivo put his hands up on the glass surrounding him, fear creeping up his chest, and his face exploded in a cold sweat. He could feel his glasses slipping down his nose because it was so wet with sweat. No, no! This was _not _what he was expecting! Though he hated Sonic, he knew this was _not _what Sonic would do. What made him so twisted?

"Look, hedgehog, we can talk this over! Don't do this!" Ivo begged through the glass. Sonic looked up from what he was doing.

"What? I'm sorry, I was too busy enjoying your awesome dinner," He said, jokingly.

"My chili dog!" Ivo screamed. Sonic's eyes widened.

"How could you enjoy this if you can't eat anyway?" He pointed out. Ivo gasped again.

"How did you know that?" He shrieked. Sonic leaned in over the control counter.

"I know everything," he said. Ivo was frozen where he was. This couldn't be the real Sonic. That just wasn't him. The _real _Sonic liked to have fun, but this was not Sonic's kind of humor. This was a different hedgehog.

"Oh, I'm almost sorry it's just about over, but for the record, you have been a worthy adversary," Sonic said, as he pressed a button combination and pulled down a lever to get the machine started, as if he had been doing this all his life. Ivo felt his face turn hot, and his thick hair felt damp. When he removed his hands from the glass, he saw wet stains where they were. He still held his electronic journal in one hand. Desperate, he went for his plasma pistol, but it was gone. He gasped yet again, when he saw his pistol sitting by Sonic's side.

"Wait…wait…don't!" Ivo begged. He had spurred Sonic on to hate him, and now this was what he got for pushing it. He saw a yellow glow gather above him, and finally, before he could scream, he felt the beam fire down upon him.**

*When Ivo woke up, the bright light above him immediately blinded him. He saw Koopa and the Commander looking down at him in surprise and shock.

"Sir," the Commander said, leaning in closer by his face. Ivo growled, and quickly sat up. Koopa and the Commander backed away in fear.

"Sir, just stay right where you are," Koopa demanded. Ivo felt a terrible aching in his head that pounded away.

"Where…is…that hedgehog?" Ivo cried out. The Commander took a deep breath.

"He…he got away, we were able to chase him out and stop the roboticizer before it could fully finish its job," he reported. Ivo's eyes shot up open in shock.

"_Fully _finish?" He asked, his voice thick with fear. Koopa gravely nodded to Ivo's side. Slowly, Ivo looked down at his side, and instead of seeing an arm of flesh and blood, he saw one completely made of shining metal and wires. He moved the arm up, his cyborg fingers moved when he wanted them to move. Looking down, he saw his right leg was also metal flesh, it whirred as he moved it. His other arm, which was still normal flesh and blood, shot up to his chest to feel his heart. It felt like one half was the whirring sounds of a machine, while the other half did the normal beat of a human's heart. Lifting his soaked shirt, he looked down at his right side to see that the metal had extended from his metal arm and down his right side, which met the metal of his right leg. He began to breath heavily now, some of his breathing sounded metallic, not human. His eyes tried desperately to hold back tears, but they came anyway. The Commander began to cautiously walk toward him, keeping his hands raised.

"Sir, please, we could…" But Ivo screamed, and got up onto his feet. The metal leg was so new to him that he wasn't used to it, causing him to fall on one knee. Forcing himself to stagger back up, he looked up at the ceiling and said just four words. Four words that brought about a thought that had started when he first saw Sonic, and had built up since then. This time, it was the last straw.

"_I hate that hedgehog_!" He screamed. He took another step forward with his mixed legs and clenched both his human hand, and his new metal hand into fists. Deep within his metal arm, somehow, he began to feel a whisper of pain in it, as if it was still human flesh.**

*"And you're certain that this Shadow reminded you of someone?" Tyr asked. Niloc kept his gaze out the window at the cloudy afternoon. In the distance a group of dark, green clouds heralded a coming storm.

"Yes, it hasn't been _that _long since the last time I saw him, that blue hedgehog. He's still out there, and I think it's time to set a plan into action."

"A plan, Niloc?"

"I will have revenge. Revenge on Sonic the hedgehog."**

*Luigi was as nervous as ever, standing in front of a transmission screen that had a blue image of someone that he had been in contact with ever since Mario had been abducted. One day, he would tell Mario what he had been doing.

"I don't know, it has been so hectic here, and me and my brother believe that for the time being, our place is here until things calm down," Luigi admitted to his contact.

"We need you, I feel like things are going to get real bad real soon," his contact admitted.

"I'll do what I can," Luigi promised. He froze when he heard the double doors across from the room began to open.

"I have to go, I'll try to get to you later," he said quickly, and he desperately cut the transmission, just as W.L and what looked like a completely recovered W came in.

"W? How did you recover?" Luigi asked. But W only shook his head, and walked in front of W.L.

"You're going to help us Luigi. We're done with the Heroes. We're going to find out what Project 60 is," W said. His voice, which was normally charming and calm, sounded deadly and very, very serious.**

**NOTES: This story takes twists and turns that I had originally not planned in the beginning. Sally was a character taken from 1993's SATAM series. I had recently come across it while writing these stories and felt it would make a great addition for a loose end in the future, and Sonic's motivation to discover who he was in the past.**

**George Lucas says that 'Star Wars' can be like a chorus. Events repeat themselves with a couple differences. For instance, in ****_The Phantom Menace_****, Anakin Skywalker blows up a battleship by firing several torpedoes into the main reactor. Years later, his son Luke would destroy the Death Star using a very similar technique. Here, Nick's arm is roboticized, like Julian's arm was roboticized years earlier. Whether or not that was really Sonic that roboticized Nick's arm remains to be seen.**


	14. Chapter 14: Hunger for Home

**The asterisk (*) symbol used once signals the start of a new scene while the (*) symbol used TWICE signals the END of a scene.**

*Dear Chairman,

Please come get me. I want to come home.

Sincerely,

Amy

That's all the letter said, but it clearly sent the message to Sonic as to what Amy wanted. This hedgehog was already homesick. Sonic looked at the handwritten date on the letter, revealing that she had written it just one day after she was sent to the military camp. Little did she know that the letter didn't get here until three days after she had sent it. She was probably falling apart by now.

"Sonic? Is that for me?" The Chairman asked from behind him. Sonic nodded and handed the letter to him. The Chairman squinted at the letter as he read it, and it didn't take long for his eyes to well up with tears.

"That poor, precious child," he whispered. Sonic nodded again, looking down at the ground. It had been a week since the victory at Ivo-Land, and it hadn't taken very long for things to start falling apart again. W.L always seemed unreadable, but W was acting strange. Somehow, he had miraculously recovered, stating that he had seemed to feel so much better one day, and that he didn't feel sick at all. As for Luigi, he looked to be scared of W and W.L every time they passed by him. Ivo also seemed to be holding back from ambushing them. There were only a couple different villages with a military G.U.N. presence there, and the Heroes were doing everything they could to chase them out.

"You better go talk to Amy personally," the Chairman finally said. Sonic's eyes darted up at him.

"I don't think I'm the best…guy to go talk to her," he admitted. The Chairman smiled and put a comforting hand on his shoulder.

"You're her friend, you were the only one that was really there for her," he pointed out.

"She betrayed us," Sonic said. Neeko sadly shook his head.

"We have already been over this Sonic, it wasn't exactly as much a betrayal as it was just the fact that she was working for Robotnik from the beginning and that was all she knew. She has started over." Around the Chairman's neck, _he _now wore the necklace with the chipped piece of meteorite. When Sonic and Amy had asked him a couple days ago, shortly before Amy had left, why he did that, he only said that he was "just carrying Amy's burden" and that he would continue to do that to the end of his days.

"Sonic," the Chairman snapped Sonic out of his thoughts again. Finally, Sonic sighed.

"Fine, I'll go see Amy," he decided.**

*Onboard _The Shunned Dealer_, the Commander reluctantly slid his ID card into the slot, allowing him to enter Ivo's lab. The room felt gloomy, with the roboticizers lined up against the left side. He could see the control panel at the center of the room where that hedgehog Sonic had almost roboticized Ivo. On the right side, sitting on a tool bench was a shivering, loathsome Ivo Robotnik. He wore a red lab suit now with a black suit underneath that extended down his legs. His only skin arm clutched his roboticized arm, and curiously, like the flesh arm, it shivered as if it was human flesh.

"It is so cold. I cannot feel any heat in this arm, and the aching pain inside is only getting worse," Ivo moaned. The Commander, not sure what to do, cautiously approached him.

"Perhaps we could fix it, we're still trying to find a way to reverse the effects," he informed.

"Very well, Commander," Ivo said, his voice thin, and it trembled terribly, "the pieces…the pieces of the meteorite all fit perfectly. We only need the one now, the one that that traitor Amy has."

"How do you propose we take it, sir?" The Commander asked. Ivo winced, obviously from pain.

"We will invade what used to be my empire, I will take back what's rightfully mine, even if it hurts Amy. I will take her and reprogram her so that things like this do not happen again. Commander, ready your troops, when I give the word, you will attack the land that is rightfully mine…" Ivo ordered, but was cut short by a fit of weeping and chuckling. When he chuckled, it didn't sound like him at all. Not wanting to point that out though, the Commander straightened up and nodded.

"Yes, sir, just give me the word when you're ready, and my men will already be set," he assured, and he walked out of there as quickly as possible. At the door, he turned back to see Ivo muttering to himself.

"I hate him…I hate…hate…hate, hate him!"**

*"Robotnik has gone mad," the Commander said to Koopa in a corridor onboard the same cruiser. Koopa did not answer right away, however.

"For the last week, Robotnik has talked to himself, raged for no particular reason, and his latest projects…" The Commander persisted, but Koopa held up a hand.

"The sooner Project 60 is taken and the Heroes are wiped out, the better," he replied. The Commander clenched his hands into fists.

"You don't understand, there is not a lot of that man left! He breathes like a cyborg, his heart is part robot, and his voice, it's changing, like a mad genius!" He shouted. Koopa, however, did not budge or change his expression.

"Precisely. He will not last long, and then _I _will take over in his place," he vowed.

"I don't have plans for that reptile man! My allegiance is not with you. I want to go back to earth. It was a mistake coming here," the Commander said. Koopa smiled.

"You will get what you want, _after _Dark Gaia splits this world apart and we leave before we're caught in the destruction," he assured. The Commander grunted.

"I hope you're right," he said.**

*Sonic ran, his feet sending him soaring faster than the speed of light across the green field. He wore a red robe that he had worn in the past five years, which were the only years of his life he could remember. For the past five years, he had been alone in a small hut, being taken care of by a reptilian anteater, whose name he had never actually learned. Then, once Chairman Neeko found him while he was running through the woods, the anteater had, without hesitation, allowed Sonic to join the Heroes. He had treated the Chairman like he was a very close friend, and the Chairman had acted the same towards the anteater.

Shaking himself out of thoughts of his past, Sonic saw the military camp ahead of him, which was the small village of Liberty. The Heroes had found the village completely deserted, and so had decided to use it as a military camp for trainees and new recruits. What was special about Sonic however was that his abilities were so great, the Chairman believed that there was no reason to send him there. The security patrol outside the village saluted Sonic without demanding who he was, or show an ID. Everybody within the Heroes knew who he was.

"Welcome Sonic, why have you come?" One of the guards asked.

"It's Amy, is she here?" Sonic asked. The guard frowned and looked at the others standing with him.

"Yes, but she doesn't want anyone to see her, she's…"

"She'll want to see me," Sonic insisted, and walked past them. Nobody tried to stop him.**

*Sonic finally found Amy's private quarters in the recruits' lodge. Slowly approaching the door, he buzzed the bell. Before he could take a deep breath, the door was flung open from the other side, and he found himself facing a red-faced Amy.

"_I told you to leave me alone_!" She screamed. Sonic backed away, putting his hands up in surrender, but Amy, seeing him, immediately calmed down.

"Oh Sonic, I'm so sorry, please, come in," she begged. Breathing a sigh of relief, Sonic followed her into her quarters. It was only one room with a bed and table with a few papers and pens. Sitting on the edge of the bed was a rabbit wearing a light red suit, and Sonic then finally realized that Amy was wearing a similar thing, except it was a darker red. In the rabbit's arms, she cuddled a small, blue creature with small arms, and small wings on its back. It made a squeaky purring sound as it slept.

"I read the letter that you sent," Sonic said. Amy looked down at the floor, her foot moving across it nervously.

"Yes, I want to go home," Amy confessed. But Sonic shook his head.

"That may be so, but while you're here, you might as well finish what you started, then, the return home will be better, because you get to go back to the Chairman knowing that you've accomplished what he desires from you," he said.

"If I stay, will you stay with me?" Amy asked. Sonic smiled.

"Well, there's not much adventure to find here, but if it will make you feel better, then yes," he said. Amy grinned and ran over to Sonic and hugged him. Sonic reluctantly returned the embrace. Once they finally detached, Amy turned to the rabbit.

"This is Cream and her Chao, Cheese," she introduced.**

*"Make sure all the security codes are accounted for, we'll need to be able to fight through the guards and get in without extra security pounding us down," W demanded as he stood over a nervous Luigi. Luigi worked on hacking into the Chairman's computer SEGA-64.

"Did the Chairman give you permission to gain access to these codes?" The computer asked.

"You don't have to worry about a thing, we just need to take these codes and get out of here," W insisted. Finally, the last code was downloaded into W's datapad.

"Good. Now erase the computer's memory that we downloaded the codes," W said to W.L, who stood next to him. Without hesitation, W's brother injected a chip into the computer's system, and Luigi programmed it to forget everything that had happened in the last ten minutes.

"Now, program the last thing we discussed," W ordered. Luigi shot up from his seat.

"I'm not doing it!" He shouted. W stood back in mild alarm, but recovered quickly.

"Why, Luigi, you can't seriously think that there is another way of doing this? W.L, _you _do it then," he demanded. W.L nodded, and after the work was done, the computer beeped in approval.

"Self destruct in 13:00 hours."**

**NOTES: With the start of a new 'season', other characters from Sonic games are introduced (though, it's more of a nod rather than introducing characters for big parts). As the story series takes a large step towards the ending, it's important to set important pieces to set up the events at the end.**

**Nick's development in the story reveals a slow transition into madness, similar to Eggman's behavior. This was fun to do, to show a steady transition into that position.**


End file.
